The Colorado Rockies had their season come to an end on Wednesday night in the National League Wild Card game. They were defeated by the Arizona Diamondbacks, 11-8. Rockies’ starter Jon Gray was unable to get out of the second inning, and the remainder of the pitching staff didn’t fare much better as the season came to a close in disappointing fashion.
It was a rough start to this one for the Rockies. The Diamondbacks jumped out to a 6-0 lead after three innings on the strength of a three-run home run by Paul Goldschmidt, an RBI triple from Ketel Marte, and a two-run shot off the bat of Daniel Descalso. They chased Gray after allowing four runs on seven hits in just 11⁄3 innings pitched. It certainly wasn’t the outing the Rockies were hoping for out of their ace making his first postseason start.
With Diamondbacks’ ace Zack Greinke on the mound, the game appeared to be just about over at that point, but the Rockies battled back with four runs in the fourth inning. Gerardo Parra had a run scoring single, Mark Reynolds drove in another with a ground out, Jonathan Lucroy had an RBI double, and pinch hitter Alexi Amarista drove in another run on an RBI single. Game on.
In the seventh inning, Charlie Blackmon drove in a run with a sacrifice bunt after Lucroy’s second double of the game, and the Rockies were back within a run at 6-5. In the bottom of the inning, relief pitcher Archie Bradley came to the plate with two outs and two men on against Pat Neshek, likely the Rockies’ best reliever. A career .098/.097/.098 hitter would seemingly be just about an automatic out. Instead, Bradley drove one into the left-center field gap for a two-run triple. It was the first extra base hit of his Major League career and put Arizona back ahead, 8-5.
The seesaw battle continued in the eighth inning. Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story hit back-to-back homers for the Rockies off Bradley as they climbed back to within a run at 8-7. In the bottom of the inning, Greg Holland gave up yet another two-run triple, this time off the bat of A.J. Pollock. After that, catcher Jeff Mathis bunted for a single that scored yet another run and the Diamondbacks went up by a score of 11-7.
Arizona closer Fernando Rodney came in to pitch the ninth and slammed the door to wrap up the win for the Diamondbacks. Gonzalez was fortunately able to drive in a run with a single in what was likely his last at-bat in a Rockies uniform to get us to the ultimate final score of 11-8. The Diamondbacks advance to the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, while the Rockies will have to wait for 2018.