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It wasn’t ever comfortable for the Colorado Rockies, nor was it remotely pretty, but they scrapped through the series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks to earn the sweep and their eighth-straight victory over their division foe.
Starter Jeff Hoffman had one of the stranger games of the season, bending about as much as one can without breaking and leaving a tough task for the bullpen. It looked like they might let it slip away but the continually impressive Rockies offense rallied in the ninth and 10th for a 6-4 win.
Charlie Blackmon continued to make a joke out of the month of June by hammering the second pitch of the game deep to right for his 17th round-tripper of the season.
The Diamondbacks got that one back against the wild Hoffman in the bottom of the first, getting two walks, a single, and a sac fly from Eduardo Escobar.
After getting two outs in the second Hoffman gave up another single and walked another batter before escaping with a strikeout of David Peralta.
But when he loaded the bases in the third by hitting Nick Ahmed with a pitch, Bud Black decided he had seen enough.
He went to Chad Bettis who struck out Caleb Joseph to keep the game tied at 1-1 and leave the bases loaded.
It stayed that way until Ryan McMahon did his thing again, blasting a two-out double to center field, scoring Nolan Arenado all the way from first after he walked to open the inning.
That swung the game in favor of Colorado at 2-1.
Ian Desmond made it 3-1 the next inning with a no-doubt home run to left, his 10th of the year.
But the Snakes struck back with a big sixth.
Bettis was still in the game, having managed the middle innings with mastery. But a leadoff walk to Tim Locastro proved a bad omen when, on Bettis’ 45th pitch out of the ‘pen, Christian Walker launched a one-out, two-run homer just out of the reach of a leaping Desmond in center to tie the game at three runs apiece.
Black went to Carlos Estevez who could not keep the game tied, giving up a double to Ketel Marte and a single to Peralta that gave the Diamondbacks a 4-3 lead.
The next six appearances at the plate could not have been much more frustrating for Colorado. Pat Valaika, starting for the injured Trevor Story, put a charge into one that Locastro chased down on the warning track with a stupendous catch. Then, both Blackmon and Daniel Murphy made outs after some highly questionable strike calls.
Jake McGee pitched a quick, clean bottom of the seventh to get right back to the near-misses at the dish for the Rockies.
Desmond sent another one deep to center but it was just barely enough off the end of the bat to fall shy of the wall. Arenado hit one well deep to left but it went foul instead of tying the game. Then Dahl gave Locastro one more opportunity to make a fantastic catch with the Rockies third warning-track out in two innings.
Jairo Diaz got a double play to erase a one-out walk in the eighth to give his club one more chance to get one more run.
Arizona went to former-Rockie Greg Holland who got Chris Iannetta to fly out to left then got ahead of McMahon 1-2 but the young lefty remained patient and worked a walk.
That brought pinch-hitter Raimel Tapia to the plate and Holland threw four straight low and away including a wild pitch that moved McMahon to second.
He was lucky not to throw another one on a great block by Joseph. But he wasn’t so fortunate on his first pitch to another pinch-hitter, Tony Wolters, bouncing one a few feet in front of the plate, allowing McMahon and Tapia to move to second and third.
Wolters fouled off the second pitch of the at-bat then got just underneath a low slider and lined it to right to tie the game and move Tapia to third. It was just the second blown save of the season for Holland who came into the game with a 1.96 ERA.
But Murphy hit into an inning-ending double play and the Rox could not take the lead.
Scott Oberg threw just nine pitches and got two strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth, sending the game to extras.
Then came another rally inspired by patience. Desmond fell behind in the count but worked a one-out walk and moved up to third on a base hit from Brendan Rodgers who entered the game the inning before on a double-switch after all that pinch-hitting. Dahl watched four wide ones to load the bases for Iannetta who unleashed a rocket to center field, missing a grand slam by a matter of feet.
He settled for the two-run double that put Colorado ahead 6-4 before McMahon hit into yet another double play to end the inning.
Oberg stayed on for the bottom of the 10th with closer Wade Davis having been overworked and overmatched of late. He was greeted by an infield single from Locastro. Then he got a long flyout before issuing a walk and falling victim to a flare single to left from Marte that loaded the bases.
But he got a popup from Vargas and struck out Peralta to seal the sweep.
The Rockies improved to 40-34 and are off to Los Angeles to take on the NL-West-leading Dodgers in a three-game set.
