Rockies come from behind to defeat Diamondbacks, 14-7

A two-out rally in the bottom of the eighth—including a grand slam from Nick Hundley—led the Rockies to a 14-7 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night. Tied 7-7 headed into the frame, the next seven batters reached and scored to give the Rockies the first game of the three-game set.

The Diamondbacks took advantage of some sloppy fielding to get on the board first. First a fielding error in the third inning from Nolan Arenado kept the inning alive until Yasmany Tomas drove in AJ Pollock to put Arizona ahead 1-0. Then in the fourth a Jorge De La Rosa throwing error on an attempted sacrifice bunt allowed two runners to score before Paul Goldschmidt and Wellington Castillo drove in runs to stretch the lead to 5-0. De La Rosa would allow five unearned runs in total in five innings of work.

Rather than packing it in for the night, the Rockies battled back by sending ten men to the plate in the fifth inning, culminating in a go-ahead two-run double from Carlos Gonzales.

Unfortunately, the Rockies bullpen struggles continued the very next inning. Jordan Lyles relieved De La Rosa and subsequently allowed a single followed by a home run off the bat of AJ Pollock, his first of the season. The Rockies tied the game back up in the bottom half thanks to Raimel Tapia, pinch hitting in his major leauge debut, reaching on an infield single and later scoring on a David Dahl single.

The game remained 7-7 until the eighth inning. Pitcher Enrique Burgos quickly retired Cristhian Adames and David Dahl before hitting Charlie Blackmon with a pitch. Blackmon almost immediately stole second (his 100th career stolen base), advancing to third on a throwing error from catcher Castillo. Two batters later Arenado redeemed his earlier error by driving in Blackmon to give the Rockies the 8-7 lead. With the score 9-7 and the bases loaded, catcher Nick Hundley hit a 1-0 fastball into the left field stands to push the lead to 13-7. Daniel Descalso, fresh off the birth of his child, delivered the final puncuation with a solo home run—only his fourth career home run in his home ballpark.

Adam Ottavino came into the ninth to shut down the Diamondbacks 1-2-3 and preserve the victory for the Rockies. In all the bullpen allowed just two earned runs in four innings with four strikeouts, which feels like an improvement after the past few weeks.

The series continues at Coors Field tomorrow as Tyler Chatwood makes his return from the disabled list to take on Braden Shipley at 6:10 pm MT.

Source: FanGraphs