Rockies lose to Diamondbacks 8-5

The Rockies lost to the Diamondbacks 8-5 at Coors Field.

Jon Gray got off to a shaky start. He couldn’t find the strike zone and walked leadoff hitter Jean Segura on four pitches. Gray’s been good at controlling the running game, and he has a good pickoff move; however, he seemed a bit sleepy on the mound in the first, leading to Segura stealing second base easily. It was costly. Segura advanced to third on a single, and he scored on a Paul Goldschmidt sacrifice fly. The Rockies were down 1-0 after an 18-pitch first inning for Gray.

The Rockies tied it in the bottom half of the first. After falling behind 0-2, Raimel Tapia singled on a grounder to the left side to lead off the game. Archie Bradley muffed a pickoff attempt to first base, and Tapia ended up at third afterward. DJ LeMahieu singled to right field to drive Tapia in and tie the game at one.

The Rockies took the lead in the fourth. Nolan Arenado led off with a triple that was equal parts unexpected and instinctual. He split the left and center fielders, which is not typically the way to get a triple at Coors Field, especially for someone as slow as Arenado. For a moment, it looked like Archie Bradley was going to get out of the inning without allowing Arenado to score. Dahl struck out in an ugly at bat, as did Gerardo Parra. Bradley then walked Daniel Descalso. That brought up Tony Wolters, and he promptly singled to center field to drive in a run and make it a 2-1 game.

In the meantime, Gray was cruising. He wasn’t missing a lot of bats, but the Diamondbacks were swinging often and early, and making a lot of weak contact while doing so. Gray and the Rockies ended the third and sixth innings after successful challenges, and Carlos González and LeMahieu turned in a couple of excellent defensive plays to keep the outs coming.

But things unraveled in the seventh. After recording one out, Gray gave up three consecutive singles, the third of which tied the game at two. Socrates Brito then laid into a first-pitch fastball for a long three-run home run. All of the sudden, the Diamondbacks were ahead 5-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh. In all, Gray pitched seven inning, gave up five runs on seven hits, walked one, and struck out three.

Tom Murphy hit a long home run in the bottom of the seventh to make it a two-run game, but the Diamondbacks added two runs in the eighth against Carlos Estevez and another in the ninth against Justin Miller. The Rockies added a couple runs in the ninth, and even had the tying run at the plate, but it ended up an 8-5 loss.

The Rockies begin a three-game series against the Giants with a Labor Day day-game tomorrow. Chad Bettis faces Matt Moore starting at 2:10 MT.