DENVER _ This most definitely was not the tone-setting performance the Milwaukee Brewers were seeking.
Matt Garza struggled in a 41/3-inning start, the defense was spotty and three solo home runs provided most of the offensive output as the Brewers opened their crucial nine-game West Coast road trip with a disappointing 8-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on Friday night.
The Rockies also hit three homers, and it was two in a three-batter span in the fifth inning by former Brewer Gerardo Parra and Carlos Gonzalez off Garza that wound up putting the game out of reach.
Milwaukee, which came in on a four-game winning streak, fell into third place in the Central Division standings with the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals both winning. The Brewers are now two games back.
Colorado jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead when Charlie Blackmon lifted Garza's fourth pitch out to left, but Milwaukee got the run back in the second on a Domingo Santana homer to right-center off German Marquez.
Eric Thames led off the third with a standup triple and Neil Walker singled him in one pitch later to put the Brewers in front for the first time, 2-1. But it didn't last long, as the Rockies jumped right back on Garza in the bottom half.
The trouble started when Marquez blooped a one-out hit to left-center then stretched it into a hustle double. Blackmon singled and Nolan Arenado followed by lifting a long fly ball to right field that caromed off the wall.
Santana got into position to make the play but leaped too early, and both runners scored as a result. Arenado wound up with a triple, and one batter later Parra singled off Orlando Arcia's glove to drive him in and make it a 4-2 game.
There was a strange moment in the fourth when, with two outs and Arcia at the plate, a review was called for because home-plate umpire Jim Wolf lost track of the count. After a delay of 1 minute, 5 seconds, it was determined Arcia had drawn a walk and he was sent to first base.
Garza followed up by striking out.
The Rockies added onto their lead in the bottom of the fourth, with some questionable Brewers defense helping them. Gonzalez started with a single to right that Santana failed to charge in on and ex-Brewer Jonathan Lucroy walked, with Trevor Story next sending a hot shot to third.
Shaw gloved it, but in attempting to throw from his knees to second base instead wound up firing the ball into right field as the deficit grew to 5-2. Garza eventually got his second ground-ball out of the night with the bases loaded to limit the damage to the one run.
Parra homered with one out in the fifth. Then after another ex-Brewer, Mark Reynolds, reached on a strikeout-wild pitch, Gonzalez lifted a two-run homer just over the wall in left field to up Colorado's lead to 8-2 and end Garza's night.
The final line on Garza was ugly: 41/3 innings, nine hits, eight runs (seven earned) and two walks with a pair of strikeouts. It was also the second blowup outing in the last three for the right-hander, who fell to 6-7 while his ERA rose to 4.81.
Keon Broxton and Arcia went deep in consecutive at-bats to chase Marquez in the sixth, but that wound up capping the scoring for Milwaukee.
