It wasn’t a fun evening at the ballpark for the Colorado Rockies. Jeff Hoffman suffered through the worst start of his Major League career and the bullpen wasn’t much better in what quickly became a forgettable night.
Mark Reynolds got the scoring started in the bottom of the second with a solo home run, his 18th of the season. Reynolds’ resurgence continues at 33 years old. He has the best wRC+ and second best strikeout-to-walk ratio of his career.
That was the high point in this one for the Rockies. Things unraveled in a big way in the fourth inning. The Diamondbacks torched Rockies’ starter Jeff Hoffman for seven runs (all earned) seven hits and a pair of walks to go up, 7-1. Hoffman was unable to get out of the inning before Bud Black turned to Jordan Lyles to pour even more fuel on the fire. Lyles, who inexplicably is still on a Major League roster, promptly gave up a two-run double followed by an RBI single to give Arizona a 10-1 lead. Lyles and the Rockies were finally saved by DJ LeMahieu’s leaping catch on Daniel Descalso’s line drive that left the bat at 104 mph.
Hoffman ultimately was charged with nine runs (all earned) on eight hits in 3 2⁄3 innings. He walked two, struck out two, and saw his ERA explode from 2.25 to 4.29. It wasn’t the kind of outing a pitcher ever wants to have, but especially not with the returns of Jon Gray and Tyler Anderson looming in the near future.
After the 10-run fourth, some other things happened. You probably don’t want to hear about them. Anyway, the Rockies lost 16-5. It tied their largest margin of defeat so far in 2017 and was a rude awakening after the dramatic wins from the previous two games.
The loss drops the Rockies to 47-27 on the year, while the Diamondbacks improve to 45-27. On the bright side, the Rockies still have a chance to take the series tomorrow afternoon. Antonio Senzatela takes the ball for the Rockies against Zack Godley of the Diamondbacks. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 pm MST.