DENVER — At least it was short for Bartolo Colon. The Mets righthander was hit early and often by the Rockies Thursday night, making the shortest start by a Met this season as they dropped the opener of the four-game series at Coors Field, 7-4.
It was the first loss in three games for the Mets (15-12) and second in their last seven games. It was Colon’s fourth loss in six starts and his shortest start since August 2013.
The 41-year-old Colon went just 4 2/3 innings allowing seven runs, all earned on 10 hits. He walked one and struck out three. Colon is the first Mets starter this season to not go at least five innings, a streak of 25 games that led the majors.
It was technically not Colon’s worst start as a Met. That would have been the 14-2 loss he suffered in Anaheim April 13.
The Mets had their most successful April in seven years because of outstanding starting pitching. They led the majors with 18 quality starts going into Thursday night’s game. They supplemented that with an improving bullpen that had posted a 1.80 ERA over the last 10 games.
That and a solid defense propped up a team that was hitting just .220, 28th in the majors and second worst in the National League.
But, Thursday night, the Mets looked sluggish on routine defensive plays, and the Rockies seemed eager to test and run on right fielder Curtis Granderson’s arm and the offense was shut down for eight innings.
So when Colon struggled, there was nothing to back him up.
Colon has allowed 23 earned runs in six starts this season, 16 of those runs have come in two starts: Thursday night and the debacle in Anaheim.
After that start in Anaheim, the Mets admitted that Colon had been affected by a back ailment, which they refused to identify. He pitched five innings in that start, however.
There was no indication that Colon was hurting Thursday night — his velocity was normal, but the usually precise pitcher could not command his fastball, his money pitch.
He gave up a hard-hit home run to left fielder Carlos Gonzalez in the first inning and right fielder Charlie Blackmon pounded a hard-hit, line-drive, RBI single to right field in the fourth. Mostly the Rockies singled off Colon and made the most of the sluggish defense behind him.
Colon gave up back-to-back, two-out singles in the bottom of the second to Corey Dickerson and Charlie Culberson. Opposing starter Juan Nicasio then singled on a line drive to right field to score two runs.
In the bottom of the fourth, Colon walked Wilin Rosario and then got in trouble when Dickerson laid down a bunt in front of the pitcher’s mound. Colon was slow to field it and first baseman Lucas Duda rushed up to help, grabbing it and firing to first before second baseman Daniel Murphy could cover. The error put runners on second and third with no outs. Colon hit Culberson to load the bases. Nicasio drove in his third run with a sacrifice fly. Blackmon hit an RBI single to right and Nolan Arenado scored Culberson on a sacrifice fly to right.
Colon finally stopped the bleeding by coaxing a ground out from Brandon Barnes.
In the fifth, Justin Morneau hit a one-out single to right and Dickerson scored him on a triple to right field.
That was it for Colon (2-4).
Juan Lagares, playing for the first time since going on the disabled list with a pulled right hamstring April 15, had two doubles. He doubled to drive in the Mets’ run in the eighth. Travis d’Arnaud hit a three-run homer with two out in the ninth off Chad Bettis to cut the lead to three runs. It was d’Arnaud’s second homer of the season.
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