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Both pitchers looked good in the early innings - so good they were perfect. Ian Kennedy looked great, his stuff looked sharp, and he struck out five batters in the first three innings. But Jhoulys Chacin was just as good, needing only 18 pitches through two innings.
Chacin "broke" first. Gerardo Parra lead off the 4th with a single up the middle, breaking up Chacin's perfect game. But Chacin didn't let that bother him - he struck out Martin Prado, and got Paul Goldschmidt to ground into an inning ending double play.
Kennedy retired the first 10 batters he faced. With one out in 4th inning, Josh Rutledge walked for his first baserunner. The no-hitter and the shutout was ruined by Troy Tulowitzki when he immediately deposited the first pitch of his at-bat to left field, making it 2-0 Rockies. It looked like the Rockies would add on - there was then a double by Michael Cuddyer and a walk to Helton - but Kennedy escaped the jam.
The Diamondbacks threatened to score in the 5th inning - A.J. Pollock and Didi Gregorius both singled with two outs to put runners at the corners. Chacin then, somehow, walked Cliff Pennington in front of Ian Kennedy, who harmlessly grounded out to shortstop, leaving the bases loaded.
Colorado added their third run in the bottom of the 5th. Chris Nelson tripled over the head of A.J. Pollock, and easily scored on a sacrifice fly from Chacin.
After that play in the 5th inning, there were a grand total of four more baserunners. Chacin left in the 6th with an injury. Brad Ziegler relieved Kennedy in the 7th, and Josh Collmenter pitched the 8th. Two of those four total baserunners came in the top of the 9th for Arizona. Parra singled and "stole" second base, then scored on a two-out throwing error that allowed Miguel Montero to reach. As the tying run at the dish, Cody Ross flew out to - who else - Tulowitzki.
Source: FanGraphs
Dominic Toretto (Hero): D Gregorius, +5.1%
Roman Pearce (Goat): I Kennedy, +2.6%
Johnny Tran (Villain): P Goldschmidt, -12.7%
Like I said earlier, there was a general feeling of ennui in the gameday thread. There were only 253 comments, and even for a Friday night, that's low. Clefo was first across the finish line, with Rockstarr in second and soco in third. All present: AJV19, Baseballdad, Clefo, DbackCardsFan, GuruB, Incomplete Translation, Jim McLennan, Rockies7935, Rockkstarr12, The so-called Beautiful, Zavada's Moustache, asteroid, azshadowwalker, coldblueAZ, hotclaws, oldspartan, onedotfive, rd33, snakecharmer, and soco.
The Rockies have now won their seventh straight game and are undefeated at home. What do you say, Diamondbacks? Does that sound good to you? "No, it doesn't!" So, what are you going to do about it? "Beat the Rockies!!" Really? "Well, we'll try....." Be here tomorrow at 5pm to see if Arizona can snap Colorado's streaks.