Colorado’s performance in a three-game series against Toronto went from bad to worse to historic on Wednesday, as the Blue Jays pummeled the Rockies in a 20-1 blowout.
The loss completed an overwhelming three-game sweep by the Blue Jays in which the Rockies set a new mark for futility, compounding their flirtation with being the worst team in MLB history.
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The Blue Jays won Game 1 on Monday by a 15-1 margin. On Tuesday, they won by the relatively reasonable yet still blowout margin of 10-4. Then came Wednesday’s debacle, in which the Blue Jays scored eight runs in the ninth inning of a 19-run win that had long been secured.
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Making matters worse for the Rockies, the Blue Jays did this at Coors Field in front of the fans in Denver who decided that it was worth showing up on a Wednesday afternoon to witness the proceedings.
When the dust was settled, Toronto had tallied 63 hits at Coors Field this week, which added up to the most by one team in a three-game series in MLB history, according to the Denver Post. Toronto’s margin of victory in the series was an astounding 39 runs.
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The Blue Jays secured 24 of their 63 hits Wednesday in a game in which the Rockies actually led early with a 1-0 margin in the first inning. But the wheels started to fall off in the third as the Blue Jays took a 3-1 lead off of starter Kyle Freeland via a three-run Bo Bichette home run.
The Blue Jays chased Freeland in the fifth with another three-run outburst highlighted by a two-run triple from Nathan Lukes, his sixth hit of the series.
From there, the Rockies’ wheels fell off.
Toronto added four runs in the sixth and two more in the eighth. Then came the ultimate addition of insult to injury in the ninth as the Blue Jays sent 11 batters to the plate after entering the game’s final inning with a 12-1 lead.
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Eight of them scored. Davis Schneider and Ernie Clement each hit home runs.
The ninth-inning outburst came entirely at the expense of backup Rockies catcher Austin Nola as Colorado opted to not further tax its pitching staff. Nola now has an ERA of 72.00.
Before it was done, the Blue Jays’ social media staff offered a shoutout to the mile-high air in Denver.
In the end, the Blue Jays scored 20 runs on 24 hits, five of them home runs. Bichette, Schneider and Lukes tied for the team lead with four RBI each. Eight different Blue Jays record multiple hits, led by four each from Clement, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ty France.
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The Rockies sent seven pitchers to the mound. Freeland (6 earned runs), Angel Chivilli (4 earned runs) and Nola (8 earned runs) took the bulk of the damage.
The Blue Jays improved to 68-48 with the sweep to increase their AL East lead over the Boston Red Sox to 3.5 games.
The Rockies fell to 30-84 (.263) with the loss and remain in striking distance of matching or surpassing last season’s Chicago White Sox (41-21, .253) for the most losses in modern-era (starting in 1901) baseball history.
The Rockies have been bad for pretty much the entire 20-season tenure of controlling owners Dick and Charlie Monfort. This week may have marked a new low.
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