Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 2: All Good Things...

Record: 49-49. Pace: 81-81. Change on last season: -3

Well... Five in a row is pretty good, right?

The DBacks streaks- wins and tacos, to be specific- came to an end this evening, done in by a lack of offense from the Diamondbacks. Or an effective, surprisingly long outing from Jeff Francis. Or some questionable strike calls from the umpire. Well, however you want to pose the dilemma, the end result was the same- not many people crossing the plate for the DBacks.

Meanwhile, Trevor Cahill didn't look too bad, but some fielding mistakes and some bad luck was enough to give the Rockies some early runs. It may not have been much, but it was enough for tonight...

The game started quickly- second pitch of the game, Dexter Fowler tripled to right field. On the third pitch, Marco Scutaro hit a sacrifice fly to bring the run in. Three pitches later, and we were headed to the bottom of the inning, with the Rockies up 1-0.

But their lead was short lived! Because Jason Kubel. After two outs from Stephen Drew and Willie Bloomquist, Kubel came to the plate and took a Jeff Francis sinker deep to left-center to tie up the game. That was Kubel's 22nd home run of the second and his 11th of the month- not bad, given that it's only July 25 and that he had a few days off for the All Star Break in the middle of the month. And it tied up the game, so the DBacks and Rockies were at 1-1 after the first inning.

The second went quickly for both sides, and it looked like we were in for a swift game. But... No. Things changed in the third inning. The Rockies put Josh Rutledge on with a lead-off single, and he took second on a wild pitch from Cahill. It looked like we might escape trouble when Jeff Francis's attempt at a sac bunt was thwarted by a good play from Miguel Montero to catch Rutledge at third base, but no such luck. Dexter Fowler singled to put two on, and then Scutaro took a pitch just past Willie Bloomquist at third into left field, bringing Francis and Fowler in to score with a double. Cahill got the next two outs swiftly, but the damage had been done. Colorado added on in the fourth inning with a solo home run from Wilin Rosario to put Colorado up 4-1 in the middle of the fourth.

The Diamondbacks threatened in the fourth. With two outs, a walk from Justin Upton and a single from Miguel Montero gave us runners at the corners. Chris Young came to the plate, fouled off some pitches, and then hit one deep into the corner of right field... where it was tracked down and caught by Tyler Colvin. End of the inning, no runs score.

After that... It was some frustration of watching Jeff Francis pitch surprisingly effectively against us. He stayed in to the seventh inning, later than you'd normally expect for the recent Rockies rotation theory would seem to encourage. He was pulled after facing one batter in the seventh- giving up a home run to Miguel Montero. The Diamondbacks bullpen did their best to keep the game close, Brad Bergesen made his second outing in an Arizona uniform and gave up one hit in two innings pitched. But the Rockies bullpen was even more effective- after Montero's home run in the seventh, the next batter to reach was.... Miguel Montero, drawing a walk with two outs in the ninth. Montero at least brough the tying run to the plate, in the form of Chris Young, but CY went down swinging to end the game, and our win streak.

Not a great outing when you've only got two batters in positive territory, WPA-speaking. Cahill wasn't terrible- 6.2 innings and 4 runs isn't bad, and would have been enough to get him a win in the past few games, but today it couldn't get it done.

Busy thread, coming up on 800 comments at the end of the game. AzDbackfanInDc led the comments, follow by Clefo and $-The Moneyman-$. We also had comments from dbacks79, Jim McLennan, , benhat, Marc Fournier, soco, DeDxDbacKxJroK, AZDBACKR, Rockkstarr12, kishi, JoeCB1991, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, 4 Corners Fan, MarinerHousewife, xmet, txzona, DbackCardsFan, rd33, Muu, deerhaven, blue bulldog, Backin'the'Backs, SongBird, egboyz, DbacksSkins, Ridster09, CaptainCanuck, Husk, and lockwood11j. Clefo got our only green comment, replying to DBacksSkins's note of "Bergesen for Cy Young":

That would be a horrible trade

for one thing, Cy Young is dead

Founder of the 'Foundation for the Advancement of Clefoing' a 501C3.
Owes Ian Kennedy a T-Shirt.

by Clefo on Jul 25, 2012 8:59 PM MST

So we only go 5-1 in our first six games at home. Alas, how tragic. The Mets come to town tomorrow, with the battle of rookies- Wade Miley will take the mound to try to get his 12th win, as the Mets will send out Matt Harvey for his first career start in the majors. We'll see you tomorrow evening for the matchup.