Rockies comeback falls short on Anderson's rough night

PHOENIX, Ariz. – This is not the start to the 2018 season that the Colorado Rockies were hoping for. It is a minuscule sample size and will be forgotten in the grand scheme but especially for a team that is banking on their starting pitching, this is simply not what they wanted to see, falling 9-8 to the Arizona Diamondbacks after the offensive rally came up just short.

For the second straight game, the Rockies starting pitcher experienced a nightmarish first inning. Tyler Anderson committed the cardinal sin of walking the first batter of the game, David Peralta, then with one out issued another free pass to Paul Goldschmidt. A.J. Pollock made him pay for it by pulling a double down the third base line, scoring both runners. The real backbreaker came in the third walk of the frame to Chris Owings. Still, Anderson struck out Jake Lamb and got to two strikes on Nick Ahmed and he was one pitch away from limiting the damage.

But he left one over the middle of the plate for Ahmed who blasted a three-run shot over the left-field fence to give the Diamondbacks a commanding 5-0 lead.

Colorado punched back right away, getting a leadoff walk of their own from Carlos Gonzalez and an opposite-field home run from Ian Desmond.

Turned out it really wasn’t Anderson’s night. After striking out Goldschmidt to begin the third, he surrendered a triple to Pollock followed by a bloop single to Owings. Then he uncorked two straight wild pitches, walked Lamb and gave up another RBI single to Ahmed before being lifted from the game in favor of Antonio Senztela who recorded two quick outs to prevent any further scoring.

Again, the Rockies answered with a two-run homer, this time from Gerardo Parra, scoring Desmond who had singled. But that was just the beginning.

In a remarkably quick sequence of events, Chris Iannetta singled, Senzatela laid down a bunt that was thrown into centerfield and Charlie Blackmon delivered his first hit of the 2018 campaign; a moonshot game-tying three-run homer. And just like that, it was locked even at seven runs apiece.

Senzatela worked a quick fourth but ran into some trouble and some bad luck in the fifth, giving up three straight singles to Owings, Lamb, and Ahmed, the middle of which was yet another lofting blooper to shallow left. He retired the next three in quick succession but the Diamondbacks got a productive out from John Ryan Murphy after Ahmed’s single brought in a run to take a 9-7 lead.

Ahmed tied the Diamondbacks franchize record for RBI in a single game by a shortstop at five.

Colorado got one back in the seventh on a double from Nolan Arenado and a two-out, two-strike RBI base hit from Carlos Gonzalez but they just couldn’t complete the comeback.

Final Stats:

Tyler Anderson: 2.1 IP, 5 H, 7 ER, 4 BB, 3 K

Antonio Senzatela: 2.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, K

Adam Ottavino: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

Charlie Blackmon: 1-for-3, 3 RBI, HR

Ian Desmond: 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR

Carlos Gonzalez: 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, BB

Gerardo Parra: 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, HR

Trevor Story: 0-for-5, 4 K

Robbie Ray: 5 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 8 K

Nick Ahmed: 3-for-3, 1 R, 5 RBI, HR

A.J. Pollock: 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2B, 3B

Chris Owings: 2-for-2, 3 R, 1 RBI

What’s Next

The Rockies will try to salvage the final game of the series on Sunday. German Marquez will face Zack Greinke. First pitch is 6:10 MST.