Diamondbacks 15, Rockies 5 - Season Highs in Offensive Outburst

Record:75-75. Pace: 81-81. Change on last season: -12

Ah, Coors Field, a surefire cure for any anemic offense. And, as Gonzo said during the game, "The worst place to be if you have must-win games." With a combined eight runs scored in the first three innings, it certainly felt like it would be "one of those games."

Thankfully, it was one of those games just for us. The Diamondbacks' bats came alive, the Rockies' arms kept throwing balls, and Arizona scored in eight of nine innings to take the opening game of the series.

The Diamondbacks scored early, with a two-out walk to Justin Upton biting Drew Pomeranz in the butt after Paul Goldschmidt doubled (his 41st) to score Upton. But the lead didn't last - four hits in the Rockies' half of the first inning scored two. Arizona loaded the bases in the second inning but couldn't score.

Another walk to Upton, this time to lead off the third inning, and a following walk up Goldschmidt let to some more runs being scored. They both scored on a double by Miguel Montero (3-for-5 tonight), and Miggy scored on a sac fly from Gerardo Parra. The Diamondbacks had the lead, but we all had a feeling it wouldn't last:

And the bottom half
Starts with a lead-off single.

I give the lead about a 50/50 chance of surviving for three outs.

by Jim McLennan on Sep 21, 2012 5:26 PM PDT reply actions

Sure enough, a single-double-groundout-sac fly let the Rockies tie up the game at 4-4 after the third inning.

After that, Wade Miley settled down, and the Diamondbacks' offense picked it up. Pomeranz, having given up four hits and five walks in his three innings of work, gave way to Alex White, his co-Traded-for-Ubaldo-Jimenez-mate. White proceeded to give up five hits and three walks in his 1.1 innings of work. Upton and Goldschmidt were again on base in front of Montero, whose single to right scored Upton. Chris Johnson barely missed a home run but the double scored Goldy. Parra was intentionally walked in front of John McDonald, who then singled to score Montero AND Johnson. Not even a 4-run lead is safe in Coors Field, but this one felt alright... for a while...

The Diamondbacks added on one in the fifth on some more walks and poor defense. In the sixth, Parra was thrown out at home by the left fielder Matt McBride, but it was a risk worth taking. No matter, seeing as how Adam Eaton later smacked the second home run of his career to make the score 11-4.

As mentioned, Miley had settled in. He allowed seven hits in the first three innings, but his fourth and fifth innings were clean. Colorado added one run in the sixth inning on three more hits. So, no, five runs on 10 hits in six innings isn't an ideal outing for the Rookie of the Year candidate, whose ERA rose to 3.25, but at Coors Field on a night where he would be chased even earlier, we'll take it.

Chris Johnson added a two-run home run in the seventh (he was a triple shy of the cycle), Aaron Hill doubled in a run in the eighth, and Wil Nieves scored on a groundout by Jake Elmore in the ninth. That made for 15 runs on 19 hits and eight walks (only one intentional). Both the runs and hits were season highs for the Diamondbacks.

Bryan Shaw and Takashi Saito followed Miley with scoreless, if not hitless, innings of work. Tyler Graham got his first major league at-bat in the eighth inning and struck out. And Josh Collmenter, lately of the Mustache Brigade, pitched a perfect ninth inning to lock down the win.

Source: FanGraphs

Awesome: M Montero, +20.0%
Also good: P Goldschmidt, +17.5%; J McDonald, +16.4%; J Upton, +14.3%
Not his best day: W Miley, -15.1%

It was a quiet gameday thread, as it was expected to be on a Friday night late in the season. However, you all were so quiet that the six or seven of us in the super, double-secret Gameday Thread on the new United site beta managed to out-comment you! (And we were funnier, too, so there is no COTD.) Rollcall shows hotclaws led the way over here, with Jim and Clefo not far behind. Making the 355 comments tonight were: Jim McLennan, Clefo, Gildo, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, Bcawz, kishi, asteroid, snakecharmer, soco, marionette, AzDbackfanInDc, Muu, GuruB, xmet, Diamondhacks, Husk, Zavada's Moustache, Rockkstarr12, BattleMoses, and SongBird.

Same Bat time, same Bat place, same Bat channel tomorrow, folks!