DBacks 5, Rockies 4: Walking Off April

Record: 9-22 On Pace: 47-115
Change on 13/10/04: -7/-5/-4

The top of the first inning didn't fill us with much confidence in Josh Collmenter and his "hundred pitch minimum" outing this evening- a swinging K of Charlie Blackmon, renowned proponent of Snake Bashing Day was a good beginning, but that was followed by a Drew Stubbs single and a Carlos Gonzalez home run. Down 2-0 before we even got to bat.

We almost managed to chip away at that deficit in the bottom of the inning, but things got ugly. Martin Prado gave the DBacks their first hit with a one out triple, putting them in prime position to score. RIght? Well, maybe if you forget who you were watching. Instead, Prado went on contact on Paul Goldschmidt's ground ball to third, and was thrown out easily at the plate. Great.

Arizona did get some luck in the top of the second. Jordan Pacheco doubled with one out, and then took third on a wild pitch. DJ LaMehieu hit what looked like a sacrifice fly, with Pacheco scoring ahead of Miguel Montero's swipe tag, but they tossed the ball back to third and tagged the base, where the umpire called Pacheco out from leaving the base too early on the tag up. Opinions may vary on how accurate that call was, but with no way to appeal it, the DBacks got an inning ending double play.

So, would the vagaries of fate and umpiring help motivate the team, launching them into a revived state? Well, no. A two out walk to Cliff Pennington was all we could do in the bottom of the second. And then Jordan Lyles- the Rockies starting pitcher, mind you- started off the third inning with a solo home run. Charlie Blackmon followed that with a double, taking third on a sacrifice by Drew Stubbs. After Carlos Gonzalez was walked, Collmenter and Montero didn't do themselves any favors, throwing a wild pitch that let Blackmon score. 4-0, Rockies, in the middle of the third inning.

But, surprisingly, Collmenter came around after that. He pitched four more innings, and only allowed two more hits, both singles, for the rest of his outing. The only problem was that the Jordan Lyles wasn't have any problems with the DBacks bats. After the triple to Prado in the first, Lyles kept Arizona hitless through the next four innings. It wasn't until the sixth that they finally got another baserunner, as Prado singled with one out, followed up by a double from Goldschmidt to give us runners on second and third. Miguel Montero took a HBP to load the bases, and Aaron Hill gave Arizona their first run with a fielder's choice. Hey, scrapping our way back to respectability isn't pretty.

Collmenter finished out his performance on the evening with a pretty quiet seventh, only giving up a single there, and just hitting his one hundred pitch count with his last out. It wasn't pretty, but it certainly was a lot better than we expected in the middle of the first. Trevor Cahill came out of the bullpen for Arizona, and the Rockies started tapping into theirs.

And that, actually, is where our luck started to change.

Our first flutter of hope happened with Adam Ottavino on the mound in the eighth, as Goldschmidt happened. It was a solo shot, cutting the lead down to 4-2, and it was his first home run in two weeks, since April 16 against the Mets. Cahill gave us a 1-2-3 top of the ninth, and we went into the bottom of the inning, hoping for a ninth inning rally.

It didn't really start out too inspiring. Cody Ross singled to start the inning, but after Pennington popped out, Ross was out as A.J. Pollock hit into a fielder's choice. Runner on first, down to our last out.

And that was when the rally kicked in.

Chris Owings pinch hit for Cahill, and doubled to right, giving us runners on second and third with two down. Gerardo Parra took a pitch to the ribs to reach first- he seemed to be in pain after that, but I haven't seen any news on it- and Martin Prado stepped to the plate, singling to center for his third hit of the game and brought in two runners to tie the game.

Free baseball!

Addison Reed took over on the mound for Cahill, which may have caused a little concern in the minds of anyone who watched Tuesday's game, and the lead off double he gave to Corey Dickerson may have exacerbated that trepidation. (It means to make things worse.) Dickerson took third on a sacrifice bunt, but Reed got a swinging K from Drew Stubbs, and then Carlos Gonzalez lined out to center to end the inning and strand the runner.

Bottom of the tenth. Could the DBacks walk this off? Miguel Montero said absolutamente, leading off the bottom of the inning with a bomb to deep right, giving him his first walk off hit of his career, and finished Arizona's April with a win.

Fairly active thread, heading towards 500 as Miggy slid into home. TolkienBard led the comments, with JoeCB1991 and Clefo taking second and third. We also had visits from 4 Corners Fan, AF DBacks Fanatic, AzRattler, Azreous, BulldogsNotZags, Circa4life, DbacksSkins, DeadmanG, Diamondhacks, Fangdango, GODSCHMIDT, GuruB, Jim McLennan, JoelPre, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, RobbieFVK, TylerO, Zavada's Moustache, asteroid, azcougs, cheese1213, dsadbacks2001, edbigghead, hotclaws, kishi, onedotfive, porty99, preston.salisbury, shoewizard, soco, and txzona.

So Arizona avoids being swept at home (it would have been so not fetch) and limps out of town with a 2-4 record on this home stand. A day off tomorrow as they head to San Diego to face off against the Padres.

What should we do with the day off tomorrow? Do you wanna do something fun? Wanna go to Taco Bell?