DBacks 16, Rockies 8: Just Another Coors Field Pitcher's Duel

Record: 25-36 On Pace: 66-96 Change on '04/'10'/'13: 0/+1/-10

Well, that was eventful.

The DBacks started the game off with a blast- literally, as Didi Gregorius celebrated his return to the majors with a lead-off home run to give the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead right out of the gate. Coors Field, huh? Gerardo Parra followed that with a single and being picked off first, but a walk to Paul Goldschmidt gave us a runner on anyway. We got a gift from the Rockies, as Charlie Culberson threw away a ball on Martin Prado's grounder, letting Goldy reach third and Prado take second. A sacrifice fly Miguel Montero brought in Goldschmidt and moved Prado to third, where he scored on a wild pitch. 3-0 before our defense had even taken the field.

Things were a bit quieter for the next inning and a half. Josh Collmenter walked the first batter he faced, but got the next three out in the bottom of the first, Ender Inciarte was thrown out trying to turn a single into a double in the second, and a Wilin Rosario double was wasted in the bottom of the second for Colorado.

But the scoring flared up again in the third inning for Arizona. Gerardo Parra started it off with a double, and then moved up to third base on Goldy's fly out. Martin Prado singled to left, bringing in Parra to score, though that was contested play, and one that looks like it'll cost the Rockies more than just a run- Jordan Lyles, their starter, tried to tag Parra at the plate, but was too late, and seemed to have hurt himself on the play. But he stayed in the game, getting out of the inning and then going through the DBacks 1-2-3 in the fourth. He left with a 4-0, and after the game was found to have broken his left hand. While still pitching for two more innings. I mean, it's not Chris Snyder-levels of playing through the pain, but still impressive.

Unfortunately for Lyle and Collmenter, the Rockies started turning it around in the fifth inning. It started with a walk to Franklin Morales to lead off the bottom of the fifth, and was followed by singles from Charlie Blackmon and Charlie Dickerson. Bases loaded, nobody out, and Troy Tulowitzki at the plate... It didn't go well. A double to deep center brought in two runs, and then a single by Michael Cuddyer scored two more to tie it at 4 runs apiece. Collmenter worked around the rest of the inning to get out without giving up another run, but that was it for his start. Not quite up to the standards of his last start.

Randall Delgado replaced Collmenter, and gave us a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the sixth, and the Rockies replaced Franklin Morales in the seventh, to the delight of the DBacks offense. Boone Logan came in to face lefthanders Gregorius and Parra, getting Didi to K, but giving Gerardo a free base with a walk. Adam Ottavino came in to strike out Goldschmidt, but then hit Prado with a pitch, and gave a single to Miguel Montero, scoring Parra from second. 5-4, Diamondbacks!

But, then again, we're in Coors Field, where a one run lead is worth the paper this blog is printed one, and Delgado started off with problems after the seventh inning stretch. A single to Tulo and a double to Cuddyer gave the Rockies the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, and brought Delgado's outing to an end, with Joe Thatcher coming in to replace him. Thatcher got Justin Morneau to pop out, and then was pulled in a double swap that pulled Aaron Hill, moved Didi to second base, and brought in Chris Owings at shortstop and Brad Ziegler to pitch. Rosario was given an intentional walk to set up the out at any base. The Rockies called on former DBack, Ryan Wheeler, or as we call him, used-to-be-Good-Wheeler. Fortunately, he grounded up the middle and Gregorius fired back to home to get the lead runner for the second out of the inning! Huzzah!

Except there were only two outs in the inning. And it went bad from there.

DJ LeMahieu grounded to Chris Owings, and Owings's throw got away from Didi as they tried to get Wheeler at second. Two runs came in, and the Rockies had runners on second and third. In your standard Coor Field scoring decision, they gave LeMahieu a single and an RBI, then let everyone else advance a base on the error. Oooookay. Drew Stubbs came in to pinch hit, and singled to score two more runs for the Rockies before Ziegler got his last out, letting the Rockies go into the eighth inning with a 8-5 lead.

Don't worry, kids. It gets good from here.

Rex Brothers came in to take the eighth inning for the Rockies, and... Gave up a single to David Peralta. Gave up a single to Ender Inciarte. Gave up a single to Chris Owings, which scored Peralta. Gave up a single to Didi Gregorius, which loaded the bases. And wrapped it up by walking Gerardo Parra to bring in a second run. Suddenly, Colorado's lead had been cut to 8-7, and the bases were still loaded for Arizona. Nick Masset replaced Brothers, and gave up a bases clearing double to Goldschmidt, putting Arizona up 10-8. Goldy scored later on a sacrifice fly from Montero to stretch that lead to three runs.

For his part in the eighth inning, Rex Brothers ended up getting hit with five earned runs, while getting zero outs- his ERA went up almost two whole points, from 3.76 to 5.47.

But it wasn't over yet for the Arizona offense. After Colorado couldn't take advantage of a two out walk in the bottom of the eighth, Matt Belisle came in to cover the ninth for the Rockies. He got two outs to start it off, but Didi singled to keep the inning going. Parra followed that with a double to score Didi, and then came in to score on a single by Goldschmidt. Prado reached on a single of his own, and then, moments after a Rockies fan could be heard on the broadcast yelling "Just swing at it, I want to go home!" Miguel Montero swung at it, and parked a ball over the fence in left field, bringing in three runs and pushing the score to 16-8.

Cahill came in for the ninth, and the Rockies seemed to want to go home as much as that fan, going down 1-2-3 and dropping their sixth game in a row, as the Diamondbacks took the second game to win the series.

A pretty busy thread, with DBacksSkins taking the lead in comments, and TolkienBard in second as the only other commenter to hit triple digits. We also were visited by AJV19, Augdogs, Circa4life, Clefo, Diamondhacks, Fangdango, GODSCHMIDT, GuruB, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Rockkstarr12, SebSwo, SenSurround, asteroid, cheese1213, cole8865, frienetic, grimmy01, hotclaws, kishi, makattack71, onedotfive, porty99, preston.salisbury, rfffr, shoewizard, txzona, and xmet.

Only one comment went green pinkish today, and that goes to our Tucsonian prognosticator:

This is the 2014 Dbacks

it’s definitely over

Goldschmidt happens.

by DbacksSkins on Jun 4, 2014 | 8:37 PM

Could be worse, Steve, at least you didn't make a domestic violence joke.

So a series win, and a shot at sweeping the series from Colorado tomorrow. Here's hoping, DBacks.