Rockies falter on the mound in 11-6 loss to Diamondbacks

The Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks have played two eerily similar games in the early part of the 2016 season. The only difference in the two? The end result.

The pitching meltdown that seemed destined to happen for the Rockies on Opening Day delayed itself by only one day, surfacing itself in the worst way in the team's 11-6 loss to the D-backs on Tuesday in Phoenix. After holding off a furious Arizona rally in the middle innings of a 10-5 win on Monday, the Rockies' bullpen exploded at the seams in Game 2 of the season-opening series.

Christian Bergman and Jason Gurka combined to allow six runs on eight hits in fewer than three innings of work, overshadowing a historic homer off the bat of rookie Trevor Story and another exciting offensive performance by the Rockies as a whole. The bullpen goats followed a messy start from Chad Bettis, who was charged five runs on seven hits in 5⅓ innings himself.

Bettis allowed two runs in his first three innings of work before settling down for a few frames. In the meantime, the Rockies plated six runs -- including homers from Story, Nick Hundley and DJ LeMahieu -- to take a commanding four-run lead in the fourth.

It didn't last long. The D-backs stormed back with nine combined runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Three of those were charged to Bettis.

Five Arizona players, including Paul Goldschmidt and notorious Rockies killer David Peralta, finished with two hits. Hundley, LeMahieu and Ben Paulsen added a pair of knocks apiece for Colorado.

We'll have more on the game, including trying to figure out exactly what Walt Weiss was trying to accomplish with his bullpen, tomorrow morning.