Diamondbacks 12, Rockies 6: Bad September Baseball

On a day where many were watching ugly week 1 NFL football, the Colorado Rockies played their final matchup of the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rockies fell 12-6 while struggling against Diamondbacks ace and potential Cy Young candidate Zac Gallen. The pitching was also rough, as the Rockies pitching staff issued a combined nine walks and six stolen bases. This loss snaps a four game winning streak and moves the Rockies’ record to 61-80.

Feltner flatlines to highlight pitching woes

Rookie starter Ryan Feltner only lasted 2 ²⁄₃ innings in his outing this afternoon as he struggled to locate pitches. Feltner allowed four earned runs on four hits and four walks, though he did not allow a home run for just the fifth time in 16 appearances this season. Things collapsed for Feltner in the top of the third inning. After giving up back-to-back singles to begin the frame, an RBI groundout scored the Diamondbacks’ first fun. He then walked Daulton Varsho before inducing a pop-out With two outs and a runner on, it looked as though Feltner might escape relatively unscathed... before he collapsed. A walk to the aptly named Christian Walker followed by a single to rookie Stone Garrett pushed two more runs home. Then Walker and Garrett ran a double steal with Walker stealing home for the fourth run of the inning. Feltner walked two more batters after that before his outing was mercifully ended.

Ugly bullpen made the game feel even longer

With Ryan Feltner lasting just 2 ²⁄₃ innings, the Rockies relied on six bullpen arms to make it through the rest of the game and it was largely ugly. The bright spots of the bullpen were Jhoulys Chacín’s 1 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings of work in relief of Feltner, and Chad Smith’s 1 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings split across the seventh and eighth. Where things really got hideous was in the seventh inning. Alex Colomé was given the ball to start the inning and only got one out. He walked the lead-off batter and allowed a single before striking out Corbin Carroll. However, the Diamondbacks pulled off another double steal on the strikeout. When Colomé walked Carson Kelly on five pitches he was pulled from the game in favor of lefty Austin Gomber. Then the inning got even longer. Gomber gave up a two run double to the first batter he faced, followed by two RBI singles to cap off an inning that lasted almost an hour where the Diamondbacks scored five runs. Dinelson Lamet gave up another two runs in the top of the ninth to cement the Rockies loss.

Too little, too late for Rockies offense

The Rockies once again had few answers for Zac Gallen, although they were able to snap his scoreless inning streak at 44 ¹⁄₃ innings. All of their damage against him came in a three-run bottom of the fourth. Ryan McMahon, Yonathan Daza, and CJ Cron hit three quick singles to score the Rockies’ first run of the game. Gallen bounced back and struck out the next two batters, but Elehuris Montero hit a double to right that would score two more runs. Outside of that fourth inning, the Rockies didn’t put up any more runs or even have any more hits. Those four hits in the fourth were all that Gallen gave up in his six inning outing. Gallen struck out 11 Rockies batters and worked five 1-2-3 innings. He did not walk a single batter. The Rockies were able to draw some blood from reliever Ian Kennedy in the eighth inning. After Brian Serven was hit by a pitch, Ryan McMahon launched a two-run home run. Michael Toglia also had an RBI groundout. Unfortunately there was just too much of a deficit to overcome, as the Diamondbacks already had ten runs scored by that point and the Rockies’ three eighth inning runs only shortened the deficit to four.

Coming Up Next

The Rockies are off on Monday before taking a trip to the Windy City for two games apiece against the White Sox and Cubs. First up is the White Sox on Tuesday, where Chad Kuhl will face off against Michael Kopech. First pitch will be at 6:10 PM MDT.