Chatwood roughed up in return, Rockies lose to Arizona 9-4

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DENVER — Tyler Chatwood didn’t have his best stuff in his first start of the DL and the Colorado Rockies couldn’t quite put together the big inning on offense like they did the night before, losing to the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-4.

In the top of the second, Tom Murphy‘s first mistake of 2016 cost the Rockies the first run of the game. Jake Lamb singled with one out and Chatwood rebounded to strike out Yasmani Tomas. But with two outs, Murphy whiffed on a pitch he should have handled and Lamb advanced to second which turned out to be critical when he came in on a single up the middle by Chris Owings that would assuredly not have scored him from first.

Chatwood made his own trouble in the third. After retiring his opposite number, he surrendered some seeing-eye singles to Phil Gosselin and A.J. Pollock before walking Paul Goldschmidt to load the bases. Then things got ugly when Wellington Castillo cleared the bases with a hard double down the left-field line just before Lamb took Chatwood deep the opposite way for his 27th home run of the season.

For the second game in a row, the Diamondbacks staked themselves to a big early lead, this time at 6-0. It was a rough night for Chatwood. His final line: 5 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 K.

The Rockies got one run back in the bottom of the frame on an opposite field solo home run from Gerardo Parra who also continues to play first base without any issues. They got two more in the fifth on a home run from Daniel Descalso, his fifth of the season, scoring Parra who had doubled.

It looked like the sixth inning would slip through the Rockies fingers. DJ LeMahieu began things with a single and Carlos Gonzalez walked but Nolan Arenado was called out on a questionable check-swing call and David Dahl struck out swinging leaving it up to Tom Murphy. The Rockies rookie catcher made up for his error earlier in the game, driving a single into left and scoring LeMahieu.

Unfortunately for the Rockies, Christian Bergman struggled out of the ‘pen, giving up three runs on four hits in the sixth and seventh, extending the Diamondbacks lead out to 9-4.

That is where the scoring would end. The Rockies struck out eight times over the final five frames and as it turned out, they were never able to climb out of that early hole.

By the Numbers

50 – Paul Goldschmidt‘s walk in the third meant that he has now reached base in 50 consecutive games against the Rockies. That’s the longest streak by any player against Colorado in their history and the longest active streak for any player against any team.

34 – In the second inning, with a single up the middle, David Dahl had officially reached base via a hit in 34 of the 37 games in his MLB career. In one of the three games he did not record a hit, he walked, and in another, he reached because of an error and ended up scoring a run. This means that in Dahl’s 37-game long career he has failed to get at least a hit, a run, or a walk in just one game.

20 – DJ LeMahieu has now reached base in 20 consecutive games, the longest streak of his career.

1 – Raimel Tapia got a hit in the first inning on an 0-2 count, making it the first of his career from his famous exaggerated crouch. It was the first start in his MLB career, replacing Charlie Blackmon just before game time. Blackmon is reportedly dealing with some back tightness.

What’s Next

The final game of the series with the Diamondbacks takes place tomorrow after at Coors Field at 2:10 MST. Archie Bradley, who has struggled lately, will take on Jon Gray who has pitched very well in his last two starts after a rough patch of his own.