DENVER — Curtis Granderson hit a shot into the right-field seats and had a two-hit game. Other than that, the Mets will want to erase this latest Mile High beatdown from their collective memories.
Zack Wheeler became the second straight Mets starting pitcher swallowed by Coors Field, in a 10-3 loss to the Rockies in front of 42,040 on Friday night.
A night after Bartolo Colon surrendered seven runs and failed to complete five innings, Wheeler got jumped in the first inning for four runs and never recovered. The Mets (15-13) lost their second in a row and fell to 5-14 in this ballpark since the start of the 2009 season.
Wheeler (1-3) was finished after four innings, in which he allowed seven runs, six earned, on seven hits and two walks. The start was the shortest of Wheeler’s major league career and the seven runs allowed were a career-high.
“I honestly didn’t have a clue where the ball was going today,” Wheeler said. “When they did hit it, it just found holes. It’s just one of those days, I got my ground balls, but they just found holes.”
The Mets can only hope it will go better for Jenrry Mejia when he faces Rockies lefty Franklin Morales on Saturday.
Granderson showed a pulse with a two-run homer in the sixth that sliced the Mets’ deficit to 7-3. The blast was Granderson’s second this season and first since April 5.
Granderson, who entered batting .141, also singled in the eighth inning to finish 2-for-4 and give him three hits in his last five at-bats.
“It’s always good, any way you can get positive results with the bat,” Granderson said. “Especially in that fashion, to get one out of the ballpark helps, but ultimately I’m trying to help the team win the game and we weren’t able to do that today.”
Ruben Tejada helped kill a potential rally after Granderson’s blast by hitting into a double play later in the sixth, after Josh Satin had walked and Travis d’Arnaud singled to put runners on the corners with nobody out.
The Rockies blew the game open with three runs in the seventh against Carlos Torres. Charlie Blackmon, who is batting .380 after a 3-for-5 night, homered leading off the inning before Justin Morneau delivered an RBI single and Wilin Rosario added a sacrifice fly.
Troy Tulowitzki was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and Morneau finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
“Obviously they are comfortable here and do an amazing job and feed off each other,” Granderson said. “They are aggressive, putting good swings on the ball and doing it to all sides of the field and everybody that comes up there is a threat.”
Jorge De La Rosa put the Rockies in position for the win by allowing three earned runs on eight hits and three walks over six innings. The lefty is 5-1 lifetime in 11 career appearances against the Mets.
Tejada’s throwing error helped the Rockies score an unearned run in the fourth to take a 7-1 lead against Wheeler. DJ LeMahieu walked and De La Rosa sacrificed before the run scored on Blackmon’s RBI ground out.
The Rockies did most of their damage in the first inning, scoring four runs on four hits and a walk. Tulowitzki singled in a run before Morneau slashed an RBI double that made it 2-0. Rosario followed with a squib that died on the third-base foul line for an RBI single and Corey Dickerson’s sacrifice fly made it 4-0.
“They are swinging the bats great,” manager Terry Collins said. “And guys have to figure out some way to stop them.”