DENVER — Ka’ai Tom could’ve walked to the plate in the ninth inning Tuesday carrying a snow shovel or a bed slat. It would’ve been tough to feel worse about the Pirates’ chances of avoiding a no-hit bid from Rockies pitcher German Marquez, an outcome that felt as inevitable as merging issues on the Fort Duquesne Bridge.
Tom dug into the batter’s box with exactly two hits in his previous 37 at-bats, a run of futility that netted him an .054 average in June. Expecting the Rule 5 rookie, the one with the .131 average prior to Tuesday’s game, to help the Pirates avoid making some ugly history seemed … well, like a Manute Bol-sized task.
Yet Tom, somehow, spoiled the no-hitter, which would’ve been the second ever at Coors Field, by stroking a clean single into right-center.
“I was able to put a good swing on it,” Tom said. “I was fortunate to hit it high enough that the second baseman didn’t catch it. We had a few hard hits [Tuesday] that didn’t go our way. I’m happy I came through right there.”
In the grand scheme of things, Tom’s hit only mattered because it prevented Marquez from making history. Michael Perez hit into a double play, and Marquez quickly closed out a one-hit, complete game shutout, walking one, striking out five and needing only 92 pitches to help the Rockies throttle the Pirates, 8-0.
Two games into this series, Pittsburgh is still waiting for its first run and extra-base hit after amassing just six singles Monday during a 2-0 loss.
“He did a really nice job keeping us off the barrel,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Marquez, who came into this one 4-1 with a 2.25 ERA in five career starts against the Pirates. “He commanded the breaking ball extremely well and mixed in the fastball, especially late, and that's what gave us problems. His tempo was really good.”
Tom's single followed a couple of near misses for the Pirates. Adam Frazier led off the game with a liner to first that Joshua Fuentes snared. Jacob Stallings hit a line drive to shortstop in the eighth, but Trevor Story made a leaping grab on it.
The terrific plays behind Marquez conjured up memories of what Lucas Giolito did to the Pirates last season, no-hitting them on Aug. 25, 2020.
It also looked like the Pirates might be careening toward the 11th no-hitter in their history and the second since Coors Field was built, the first (and still only) belonging to Hideo Nomo — with the Dodgers — during a 9-0 win over the Rockies on Sept. 17, 1996.
Kyle Freeland, who tossed five shutout innings in the first game of this series, carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning on July 9, 2017 before former Pirate Melky Cabrera broke that one up with a single.
"He was able to locate his pitches very well," Tom said of Marquez. "He had his four-seamer working and his slider. He was just mixing it up and keeping us off-balance. I also feel like he got lucky.
“Frazier, first batter of the game, hits a ball very hard. First baseman made an unbelievable play. If a few of those hits went our way, who knows how the game could have gone."
Things went the opposite way for the Pirates and their starter, Chase De Jong. The Rockies finished with seven extra-base hits against De Jong and Cody Ponce, who worked the final three innings. Elias Diaz hit a mammoth home run. The Pirates also had some trouble in the field, with Stallings throwing wide of first on a play that was scored a hit and De Jong throwing wildly on a pickoff attempt.
Pitching for the first time at Coors Field, De Jong said he tried to counter the Rockies' aggressive swings with some pitches out of the zone. He missed with too many, and Colorado connected when De Jong came back in the zone.
The perfect example of that was Diaz, who was down 0-2 but wound up blasting a full-count curveball 451 feet to center for his second homer in as many nights.
"We made them earn everything they got," De Jong said. "Didn’t walk anybody. They got hits. You have to tip your cap. I thought we made a lot of good pitches."
Whether De Jong is right or wrong, it's irrelevant. The Pirates had one [bleeping] hit. At Coors Field. Against a team that’s 33-47. At the same time, you maybe could have predicted it by looking at the lineup.
Gregory Polanco, hitting .199 coming in, occupied the cleanup spot. Stallings, a bottom-of-the-order bat on most other clubs, was fifth. Phillip Evans (.211 and hitless in his last nine at-bats) was sixth, Kevin Newman (.213) was seventh and Tom (.131) was batting eighth.
With Shelton choosing to rest Bryan Reynolds, he had Ben Gamel in the No. 3 spot. And nothing against Gamel, who's been a fine depth outfielder, but he's not a No. 3 hitter.
The moral of the story here is that this offense is nowhere near deep enough, and there's the risk of this sort of stuff happening if the Pirates face a pitcher who's feeling it like Marquez was Tuesday, mixing his pitches and dotting the strike zone.
For while the Pirates might point to a couple balls they hit hard, the reality was that Tom actually getting a hit was somehow more shocking than Marquez nearly finishing off his no-hit bid.
"It's one of those things when you come to the ballpark, the guy on the mound can really dictate what goes on," Shelton said. "[Tuesday], Marquez had really good stuff."
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: June 30, 2021, 3:05 a.m.
Updated: June 30, 2021, 10:04 a.m.