Senzatela uneven but 'felt good' in IL return

DENVER -- Rockies right-hander Antonio Senzatela tempted the wrong struggling Padres hitter Tuesday night.

Senzatela consistently fell behind in the count and gave up hits and walks to hitters who entered the game scuffling. He got away with it until Manny Machado swatted a two-run homer in the fifth inning to start the Rockies tumbling to their fourth straight loss, 8-1 at Coors Field.

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In his return after missing a start with a slight right groin strain, Senzatela had the pitch action but not the control. The performance was reflective of his disjointed overall numbers this year. After leading the Rockies in ERA+ last season at 151 and generally building a reputation for strike throwing, Senzatela finds himself with a 5.97 ERA through seven starts in 2021.

“I like to attack the zone, but in the fourth, fifth, sixth innings, I threw too many balls on the first pitch and I got behind,” Senzatela said. “I need to figure out quickly what I need to do to be in the strike zone.”

Manager Bud Black, whose Rockies managed three hits against Padres pitching, is looking to build on the pitch action and health Senzatela displayed.

“Overall, I thought it was a positive,” Black said. “His stuff was fine. He missed on a couple sliders down and away, but they had good action. I thought the changeup came into play, which is something we're stressing with Antonio. He got some outs with it today and used it a handful of times, maybe more.

“But overall, he threw five innings and hung a breaking ball to Machado. He’d like to have that one back. But it's good to have him back. His arm felt good. He felt fine.”

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Senzatela was solid until two outs in the fourth. But Tucupita Marcano (called up that day and entering at .167) and Tommy Pham (.190) singled, and Austin Nola (.133) drew a walk -- with all operating in hitter’s counts. Senzatela escaped when he struck out Ha-Seong Kim (.190) with the count full. But in the fourth, Machado (.228) ignored two off-target sliders, then swatted one hanging in the middle into the left-field seats.

“Every pitcher wants to throw strike one and keep going, and be on the attack,” Black said. “It just didn’t happen for him tonight. I think that's the intent for him. In most cases, when a starting pitcher pitches well, that’s usually the case.”

Senzatela walked Marcano to open the sixth and yielded another Pham single before leaving. Both would score when Tyler Kinley gave up Machado’s three-run triple as part of a six-run Padres inning.