Sometimes the Colorado Rockies not only have a bad game, but a bad series. That’s baseball. Nonetheless, during Thursday’s game, the Rockies lost 10-3 to the Arizona Diamondbacks, resulting in two of the three games in the series lost to their division rivals and edging the Rockies that much farther from first place in the NL West.
Things started out promising enough as Charlie Blackmon hit a leadoff home run to bring the score to 1-0 Rockies. Nolan Arenado followed that up later on in that inning with a single... and that was it. The Rockies did not get a base hit again in the game until the bottom of the 8th.
Meanwhile, Antonio Senzatela was shaky from the get-go, allowing a leadoff walk to Jeremy Hazelbaker in the first. That was some ominous foreshadowing for the rest of his start as a combination of walks and hits led to his downfal.. In the second inning, he yielded back-to-back singles and a groundout to tie the score at 1-1. During the third, a combination of walks, singles and a a home run by Chris Owings pumped the score up to 5-1 Diamondbacks. He fared little better in the fourth inning as the Diamondbacks got another two singles, a walk, and a Paul Goldschmidt home run, the second three run home run of the game which jerked the score out to 9-1.
No Rockies or Diamondbacks reached base from the bottom of the fourth until the top of the eighth. Senzatela would finish the game going five innings, allowing nine runs thanks (or unthanks) to nine hits and three walks while striking out three batters. For a silver lining, Scott Oberg pitched well in relief for the Rockies, throwing two innings with three strikeouts. The Diamondbacks added on another run in the top of the eighth off of Jake McGee thanks to two singles, bringing the score to 10-1.
Meanwhile, Diamondbacks starter Zack Godley threw seven innings and had allowed just one run and two base runners while striking out eight Rockies until the bottom of the eighth. He was pulled after Raimel Tapia reached on an infield single and pinch hitter Pat Valaika drove in Tapia with a double. Valaika managed to score after an infield single from Blackmon but the Diamondbacks were able to wiggle out of the jam with the score at 10-3.
Though not much happened in the ninth inning, it was noteworthy in its own right. Tyler Anderson who was activated from the disabled list earlier in the day, pitched for the Colorado Rockies. He allowed a hit and a walk but struck out three batters. On the Diamondbacks side, Jorge De La Rosa came on in relief in the ninth inning for his first post-Rockies Coors Field appearance. He got a nice high five from his Diamondbacks teammates after closing the door on the Rockies.
If there is momentum, which the Rockies might have had over two come-from-behind wins against the San Francisco Giants, it didn’t carry over to the Diamondbacks series. Hopefully the Rockies can capture some of that mojo back when they travel to Los Angeles to face off with the NL West leading Dodgers on Friday.