In the words of Yankee great and wordsmith Yogi Berra, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” The Rockies aren’t scoring enough runs and solo homers still aren’t getting the job done.
Offending offense
Despite two homers from the NL West’s last-place team, which unfortunately is Colorado, the Rockies’ offense continues to struggle in producing runs. The Rockies only had five hits total in the game and have now scored only seven runs in their last four games, three of which have been losses. Charlie Blackmon started things off with a bang, hitting a solo home run (his 13th of the year) in the first inning as the Rockies took a 1-0 lead. Nolan Arenado hit his 19th homer of the year in the ninth inning, but by then the Rockies were down 4-2. It was too little too late. In between the solo homers, Blackmon added a double, Trevor Story tripled, Daniel Murphy got a pitch hit single, and Elías Díaz drew one walk for four more baserunners, but no more RBI or runs scored. Maybe it’s to be expected when the slumping Rockies face Madison Bumgarner, who gave up three runs, but only Blackmon’s homer for damage in seven innings with one walk and six strikeouts to improve to 6-2 on the season.
Can’t afford any mistakes
Colorado pitchers practically need shutouts if they want a chance to win lately. Rookie Ryan Castellani, who fell to 1-2 with the loss, wasn’t terrible, but he wasn’t the near perfect that the Rockies’ offense requires of their pitchers in order to get wins. He gave up six up four runs on six hits in five innings with two walks and one strikeout. The first two runs came mostly from good Diamondback luck. Arizona tied the game up in the bottom of the first when Garrett Hampson made an outstanding catch at the wall in left-center to rob Ketel Marte of extra bases, but couldn’t get the ball in fast enough to prevent Tim Locastro from scoring from second base. Even when Castellani got Arizona to ground into a double play in the second inning, the Diamondbacks still scored a run to take a 2-0 lead. Marte then added insurance with a two-run homer, his 12th of the year, in the third inning to round out Arizona’s scoring. Jeff Hoffman was strong again with two innings of scoreless relief and Tim Collins added another, but the damage was already done.
Up next
In the rubber match, the Rockies will try to win the series against Arizona with a day game on Wednesday. Germán Márquez (4-5, 7.66 ERA) will be on the mound for the Rockies, who will look to get their swings back against Arizona’s Zac Gallen (0-3, 3.48 ERA). The game will not be broadcast, but you can find out the results here at Purple Row.