Diamondbacks downed by Rockies 6 to 4

The Diamondbacks went 1-13 with Runners in Scoring position tonight, leaving Zack Greinke no margin for error. Through 6 innings, the game was a 2-2 pitchers duel. The only blemish for Greinke up to that point was a 2 out homer by Daniel Murphy in the 4th.

Jon Gray allowed just 2 runs, 1 earned through his 6 innings of work. Grey worked fast, and threw strikes, (When he wasn’t throwing over to first base) getting 19 of 27 first pitch strikes. The DBacks had plenty of baserunners against him though, with 6 hits, 2 walks, and 2 reaching by error. They just couldn’t convert and get the big hit to break it open.

In the 7th Greinke allowed five straight hits to begin the inning, the big blow being a two run double by Ryan McMahon. Greinke made a really nice play on a liner right back at him and fired to Nick Ahmed to double off the runner at 2nd to limit the damage. But he allowed 3 runs in the frame to give the Rockies a 5-2 lead. Zack allowed a season high 11 hits , didn’t walk a batter, but only struck out 2.

The DBacks scored a run off Brian Shaw on a David Peralta RBI base hit in their half of the 7th. He drove in the speedy Tim Locastro, who of course got on by a hit by pitch, his 12th of the year. That is the Franchise record for pre all star game HBP. But then Adam Jones hit into his 2nd double play of the game against Scott Oberg who’d come on to relieve, squashing another rally. Jones now has three GBDP in his last two games and 9 on the season. He did not appear to be moving or running well to my eye. My guess is he gets a day off tomorrow.

The Rockies tacked on a run in the top of the 8th against Andrew Chafin. Ryan McMahon drove in another run with his 3rd hit of the game. Then after Chafin allowed another base hit to lead off the 9th to Tony Wolters, (the 3rd hit by a lefty off him) Yoan Lopez came on to relieve and managed to get out of the inning by picking off Wolters, striking out Mark Reynolds, (who hit a long foul to left that caused some confusion.) and then got Charlie Blackmon to line out to first baseman Christian Walker.

There was a flicker of hope in the bottom of the 9th as the struggling Wade Davis came on to relieve. Carson Kelly K’d to lead off the inning. Then Kevin Cron came off the bench to pinch hit and launched the first pitch he saw to the Home Run Porch to the right of the batters eye for his 4th HR of the year.

Jarrod Dyson followed with a strikeout, but Ketel Marte got his 3rd hit of the night, a three hopper into centerfield. That was Marte’s 3rd straight three hit game, and 10th of the season. Unfortunately a David Peralta line drive was snared by a diving Daniel Murphy to end the game and send the Dbacks to defeat for the 5th time in their last 8 games.

They are now 0-2 on this home stand. This can’t be what Mike Hazen had in mind when he talked about the next 18 games being critical to determining what he would do at the trade deadline. (See Jim’s Game Preview for details and link)

The DBacks will look to salvage the last game of the series against the Rockies tomorrow at 12:40 P.M.

Fangraphs Box

Negative Players: Adam Jones -.299, Zack Grinek -.258 Carson Kelly -.131

Trying, but not enough: Christian Walker +.149, Jarrod Dyson +.63, Tim Locastro +.49

A very light traveled Game day thread tonight, Just 17 commenters with 253 comments. No inspirational comments tonight drew enough recs to turn Red. It’s not your fault.