Rockies offense reaches new depths in historically awful sweep at hands of Padres

Rockies Report, Game 15:

ROCKIES BOTTOM LINE: The Colorado Rockies have never had an offense look this bad.

Literally.

They had never been shut out in three consecutive games. Until now.

A lousy start to the season became an outright embarrassment at Petco Park this weekend, capped by a 6-0 series-ending loss to the San Diego Padres. The Padres jumped on the Rockies with four first-inning runs, but given the Rockies’ offensive woes, one was all that San Diego needed.

Colorado had just two hits Sunday. Only three players reached base.

The Rockies went 9-for-88 in the series — a meager .102 average. But that includes the .500 average posted by Kyle Farmer, who went 5-for-10. Everyone other than Farmer went 4-for-78 — a staggeringly awful .051 average for the series.

Strikeouts have been a problem all season and the Rox are still whiffing a ton — 15 times in the series opener Friday night and 17 more times over the final two games of the series.

They played all three games this weekend without center fielder Brenton Doyle, who is nursing a right quadriceps injury. Doyle might have been enough to help Colorado avoid embarrassment, but probably not to avoid the sweep.

Colorado drops to 3-12, the worst record in Major League Baseball through 15 games. This matches the 2019 season for the worst 15-game start in club history.

But that doesn’t tell the story after the worst offensive series in team history.

STARTER’S REPORT: Kyle Freeland got San Diego leadoff man Fernando Tatis Jr. to chase a sweeper low and inside for the first out of the day, but after that, matters got out of control in a hurry for the Rockies’ No. 1 starter.

After getting Xander Bogearts for the second out of the inning, Freeland got a ground ball from Oscar Gonzalez, but it went under the glove of a diving Ryan McMahon, scoring Manny Machado from third base to start the scoring. It was the first of three-consecutive base hits allowed by Freeland, which put the Padres in front 4-0 after one inning and into cruise-control mode toward the sweep.

Freeland was able to settle down after the first inning and made it through five innings, but the damage was done as he absorbed his third loss of the season. All of his runs allowed were earned, sending his ERA to 4.88; his WHIP is now 1.41 after he yielded eight hits and two walks.

This marked the first time in his four starts this year that he failed to make it through at least six innings of work.

But even one run would have been too much, as the offense remained inert at the plate.

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: Jose Iglesias clubbed a double to the gap in right center field, bringing Oscar Gonzalez and Yuli Gurriel around from second base and first base, respectively, to push San Diego’s lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the first inning. Colorado couldn’t muster even a single baserunner until the fifth inning.

ROCKIES NUMBER TO NOTE: 0 — Runs put on the board over the course of the weekend. The Rockies had never been shut out for a three-game series before, and as pointed out by MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, it’s the first time any team was shut out in an entire three-game series since Cleveland blanked the Kansas City Royals in August 2017.

ROCKIES UNIFORM: Black hat with purple bill, purple jersey, gray pants. The Rockies are 1-5 in this uniform.

WHAT’S NEXT: Gulp. Your Rockies navigate the freeways northward to face the defending world champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Antonio Senzatela will toe the rubber at Dodger Stadium. The first pitch is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. MDT.