The Rockies’ trip to Atlanta opened with a rough reminder of what happens when a starter can’t get through traffic. Colorado fell 6-4 to the Braves on Friday night, and Tomoyuki Sugano’s night unraveled quickly enough to put the Rockies in a deep early hole they never fully escaped.
Sugano was chased after four innings, having allowed six runs on 10 hits. He struck out four, walked one and surrendered a home run. It was the kind of outing where Atlanta kept finding barrels, and Colorado’s veteran right-hander never really found a way to slow it down.
Manager Warren Schaeffer didn’t have much choice but to go to the bullpen earlier than planned. Against a lineup like the Braves, that can snowball in a hurry, and this one did. Sugano has been a steady piece of the Rockies’ rotation this season, which made Friday stand out even more as a rare off night.
The loss also circles back to the deadline decision that kept Sugano in Denver. Teams such as the Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers were in the market for starting pitching, and the Rockies had Sugano available as a name that could have been moved. Instead, Colorado held onto him and kept him in the rotation through the end of the year.
That choice now looks less clean in light of starts like this one. The Rockies did not do enough to sell off pieces for the future, and Sugano is one of the players who fit that conversation.
His spot also affects the path for Chase Dollander. If Sugano had been dealt, it would have opened a full-time rotation job for Dollander, the second-year player out of Tenessee who is currently on the shelf with an injury. Dollander was built for starting, the same role he held in college, but Sugano’s presence keeps that door closed for now.
For a Rockies club that needs innings from its rotation in a difficult year, Friday was another example of what happens when those innings don’t come. And for a veteran who is not part of the team’s future, it was the kind of outing that makes the deadline decision look even more costly.
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Rockies Let A Gritty Bullpen Effort Slip Away Late
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The turning point came in the eighth inning, when a play in the outfield quickly shifted the pressure onto Colorados defense and left manager Warren Schaeffer talking afterward about the sequence. Schaeffer praised the bullpens overall work, but the late breakdown overshadowed it and left the Rockies looking back on a game where one play wound up carrying too much weight. [Read more 🡒]