Tyrell Jenkins gets rolled by the Rockies as Braves lose 7-2

Despite the fact that Tyrell Jenkins finished his second career start at the major league level with a quality start against the Reds, there was a sense that the rookie was playing with fire during that particular start. Today, Jenkins got burned by the Rockies, who paraded around the basepaths on their way to a 7-2 victory and a four-game sweep of the Braves.

You know that you’re in for a bad day when the first inning could be considered as “the beginning of the end,” and that was exactly the case for Tyrell Jenkins and the Braves. Jenkins handed out three walks in this inning alone, and that’s including the pitcher, Tyler Chatwood. By the time this had happened, the Rockies were already up 4-0 thanks to a three-run homer from Nolan Arenado and a single from Nick Hundley that brought home Trevor Story from third base.

Meanwhile, the Braves were able to get their fair share of runners on base against Tyler Chatwood. Unfortunately, they couldn’t turn those runners into runs scored, and they mostly reached base via walk. In fact, Chatwood left the game after five innings, but he threw 97 pitches in those five frames and walked eight while somehow giving up only one hit. It was definitely a strange outing for Chatwood and both pitchers can say that they didn’t have their best stuff today, but I’m sure that the Rockies aren’t complaining about the fact that Chatwood somehow managed to keep the Braves off of the scoreboard while he was out there.

Tyler Jenkins was eventually ran from the game in the fourth inning, which is when the Rockies absolutely teed off on him. DJ LeMahieu led off the inning with a dinger, and after a deep double from Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story delivered the finishing blow by mashing his 27th homer of the season over the fence in left center field. The Rockies were up 7-0 at that point, and Tyrell Jenkins left the game after learning firsthand just how much fun it is to be a pitcher at Coors Field.

In the top of the seventh, Jace Peterson led things off by walking. That was their ninth walk of the game at that point, but he was wiped off the basepaths following a fielder’s choice. However, the Braves did eventually score thanks to a double from Freddie Freeman that brought Chase d’Arnaud home. Freeman made it to third base on the play thanks to an error from Carlos Gonzalez, and he scored after Nick Markakis grounded out. That would be all of the scoring for the Braves today, and it’s fortunate because it would’ve been somewhat embarrassing for this team to walk nine times and score zero runs at Coors Field, of all places.

The good news is that after this 7-2 defeat, the Braves are now done with their annual trip to Colorado. Of course, the bad news is that the Braves have now lost 10 straight games at Coors Field, and are now 5-30 against the NL West since June 2014. They still have trips to San Francisco and Arizona left this season. Clearly, the West Coast is not the best coast for the Braves.