Rockies 6, Diamondbacks 4: Rockies Slide, DBacks Barry'd

Record: 13-16. Pace: 73-89. Change on last year: -1

If there's any team we're familiar with, it's the Rockies. We share a Spring Training facility, we probably interact with their blog more than anyone else on SBNation, and it seems like we're always playing them. Is there anything that can surprise us about this team? I doubt it- but maybe, just maybe.... I can remember how to spell Jhoulys Chacin without checking it repeatedly every time I type it.

Both pitchers came out with their A-game, holding the opposition hitless through the first two innings. They were pretty swift innings, too, and it seemed like both teams were in a hurry to make a post-game date. The Diamondbacks no-hitter was broken first, when Jhoulys Chacin came to the plate in the third and singled into center. The Rockies followed that with a Dexter Fowler double, and with runners at second and third and only one out, Enright looked to be in some trouble. He worked out of the jam, though, and kept the game scoreless.

Heading into the bottom of the inning, Chacin ran into the same fate as Enright had- giving up his first hit of the night to the opposing pitcher. However, Barry drove his ball juuuust a bit further, launching it several rows deep past the left field fence to give the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead. The bomb was Enright's first home run in the majors, though he had one in Mobile last season before being called up.

Things went wrong for the Captain in the top of the fourth, though. Todd Helton drew a walk, and with two outs, Ian Stewart launched a high fly ball to deep right field. Justin Upton went back on it but appeared to misjudge where he was in relation to the fence, and it went just over his glove as he jumped. That brought Helton in to score and tie up the game, and then in the next at-bat Chris Iannetta took an 0-2 pitch to deep left to give the Rockies a 3-1 lead. The fifth inning was just as rough, as walks to Jonathan Herrera and Carlos Gonzalez haunted us, thanks to a Helton double. A Seth Smith single brought in Helton, and the Rockies went up 6-1. Enright got an out to end the inning, but that was the end of his work on the night.

The Diamondbacks offense, however, hadn't really shown up much at all, outside of Enright's home run. A lead-off walk in the bottom of the fifth was wiped out when Juan Miranda was caught stealing- it's possible he was expecting a hit-and-run, but no such luck. Gerardo Parra drew a walk, but one on with one out isn't as useful as two on with no outs, so the offense went down without any noise.

Josh Collmenter came in after Enright, and did the solid long-relief job we've come to expect from him. He pitched two innings and faced the minimum, including getting Troy Tulowitzki to ground into an inning ending double play. One small point of joy to take from the loss is that Tulo went 0 for 5, and continues to be hitless against the Diamondbacks this season. That 0-fer was helped by a bad call from an umpire who called a sure double a foul ball, but we'll take what we can. I'm sure Tulo is writing about this frustration in his Justin Bieber diary as we speak.

It wasn't until the bottom of the sixth that the Diamondbacks got a second hit, and again it left the park. Kelly Johnson gave us a little hope that he might be breaking out of his slump by firing a solo home run out to right field. But the Diamondbacks didn't make much other noise until the ninth inning. Miranda gave us a one out solo home run to give us some hope- our third home run in four hits at that point. Too bad we could have had more runners on base. Gerardo Parra drew his third walk of the game, and after going to second on defensive indifference, a two-out single from Melvin Mora cut the lead to two. Chris Young singled to bring the winning run to the plate in the form of Kelly Johnson and.... He struck out on three pitches. A little anticlimactic, as games go.

Yes, Enright claims both titles for the day- no one else was better off than a +5%, and his pitching was, by far, the influencing factor on the game. Meanwhile, an active, if meandering, GDT worked its way past 950 comments on the night. DBacksSkins took the crown, with Clefo and justin1985 joining him in triple digits. The rest of the commentary including luminaries such as NASCARbernet, Bcawz, pygalgia, UAwildcats, Dallas D'Back Fan, hotclaws, jinnah, BattleMoses, emilylovesthedbacks, Cardscrazy247, Wailord, txzona, dbacks25, Jdub220, kishi, Jim McLennan, JustAJ, Muu, 4 Corners Fan, blank_38, DeDxDbacKxJroK, and snakecharmer. dbacks25 takes Comment of the Night honors for translating Tulo's comments after his disputed double:

I think it was "I'm overrated"

I survived the 2004 & 2010 seasons.

by dbacks25 on May 4, 2011 7:24 PM MST up reply actions   4 recs

So we drop the second game of the series, and we'll head out to try to win it tomorrow. Ian Kennedy will take the mound against Jason Hammel, and we'll try to end this home stand on a high note.