Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 5: Bullpen blows 12-hit Colorado night, Márquez’s quality start

If you knew that Germán Márquez would hit triple digits three times and record his ninth quality start of the season on Friday night against Arizona, while at the same time the Rockies would put up five runs on 10 hits against Madison Bumgarner, would you think Colorado would win?

One would hope, but that’s not how this season is playing out for the Rockies. Despite holding a 5-2 lead after six innings, the bullpen completely collapsed with Lucas Gilbreath losing the strike zone and giving up two runs before Alex Colomé was hit hard and gave up two more in earning the loss. Even though the Rockies had a chance to tie the Diamondbacks for fourth place in the NL West, now they have sole possession of last place by two games.

99 problems and the bullpen is a lot of them

When Márquez left the game after six innings, the Rockies had a three-run lead and things were looking good. Gilbreath, who had been very solid having only given up four earned runs in his last 18 appearances over 18 innings, completely forgot how to throw strikes. He walked three batters, threw 17 of his 22 pitches as balls, and gave up one hit in surrendering two runs. Robert Stephenson came in to end the suffering, hitting 100 mph on the radar gun, striking out Ketel Marte, and getting Christian Walker to line out to C.J. Cron. Alex Colomé entered the game in the eighth and didn’t fair much better than Gilbreath. After getting Daulton Varsho to ground out, Andrew McCarthy singled and Emmanual Rivera doubled to put runners on the corners. Colomé then got Carson Kelly to ground out for the second out before Geraldo Perdomo lined a two-run single over the outstretched glove of Rodgers to put the D-Backs up 6-5. Colomé took the blown save and the loss after the Rockies went down in order in the ninth.

Big Monty and steady Daza

Elehuris Montero is making the most of his playing time lately. In his third straight start, Montero went 2-for-4 and came up with the biggest Rockies hit of the game. It came in the sixth inning after Brendan Rodgers led off with a walk against Bumgarner. Randal Grichuk followed with a single and Elias Díaz hit a sac fly to move Rodgers to third. Yonathan Daza, in his second hit of the night, then hit an RBI single to put the Rockies up 3-2. That’s when Montero came to the plate and punched the first pitch up the left side to score Grichuk and Daza and put the Rockies up 5-2.

Bumgarner exited the game with two outs, finishing his night giving up 10 hits, four runs (five earned), two strikeouts, and one walk in 5 ²⁄₃ innings.

Double the fun

The Rockies had 12 hits on Friday night and five of them were doubles. The Rockies didn’t waste any time recording a double to extend the team’s 27-game streak with a two-bagger as Daza hit one down the left field line in the second inning. While he was stranded, the Rockies got two more in the third and made it count. Montero lead off the inning with a double to left that evaded a diving McCarthy. After Charlie Blackmon struck out, José Iglesias continued his red-hot road hitting with an RBI double down the right field line to put the Rockies up 2-1. The next double was ridiculously long (Baseball Savant put it at 425 feet, but that doesn’t quite add up when the center field wall just to the right of where the ball landed says 407).

Connor Joe added another double in the eighth to finish the double fun.

Throwing the heat, finding the Márq

This one seemed bad early. It looked like Márquez might not make it out of inning. It all started with a walk to leadoff hitter Josh Rojas, who then was halfway to second to steal the bag when Márquez noticed and balked. Marte followed with a double and it was 1-0 with one out. Márquez got another out, but then walked Varsho in an 11-pitch at-bat that included five two-strike foul balls and a 100-mph fastball. Márquez got out of the inning on his 34th pitch when he got McCarthy to ground out and avoided the inning from being much worse. Germán then found his grove, retiring the six next Arizona hitters before Varsho smashed his 15th homer of the season to tie the game at 2-2. As the game went on, Márquez got better and better. His final line: 6 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts (which moved him to 98 on the season).

Grichuk hits rocket, has a night

Despite being down 1-0 after one inning, Grichuk didn’t let Arizona have the lead for long. Blasting his 11th home run of the season, Grichuk hammered Bumgarner’s fastball 431 feet with an exit velocity of 106.2 mph.

Grichuk also hit a single and came around to score in the Rockies three-run sixth inning. He added another infield single to finish the game going 3-for-4 at the plate.

Up next

The Rockies and D-backs will return to Chase Field for game two of the series at 7:40 p.m. MT on Saturday. The Rockies will send Antonio Senzatela (3-6, 4.87 ERA) to the mound while the D-Backs will turn to Merrill Kelly (10-5, 2.87 ERA).