Rockies rally falls short in rumble with Arizona

The Colorado Rockies rallied late and had a chance to steal one in their series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but the hole the pitching dug proved to be just a bit too much for the offense to climb out of.

Tyler Anderson simply has not found it in 2019. He had another rough outing, failing to go more than four innings, even bunting into a rally-killing double play in the game.

Anderson pitched a clean first inning but his issues came right back in the second. It began, as it so often does, with a leadoff walk, this one to David Peralta. Christian Walker followed that by ripping a ground ball just inside the third-base bag for a double. Wilmer Flores added a double of his own to give Arizona an early 2-0 lead.

They added in the third with another pair of hard-hit baseballs, a double for Adam Jones and a no-doubt home run on a flyball to center field off the bat of Ketel Marte.

The Rockies erased the four-run deficit in the bottom of the fourth with a strong rally and a bit of good luck. It started with a one-out double from Nolan Arenado into the right-center field gap with one away. Mark Reynolds followed with a walk and the Rockies caught a break and got some help from technology revealed that Nick Ahmed never touched second in attempting to turn a double play. David Dahl beat the relay throw so everyone was safe, loading the bases.

In the next at-bat, Ian Desmond hit a soft grounder toward third and Eduardo Escobar hurried himself, an attempt to get an inning-ending double play, and dropped the ball entirely. Once again, everyone was safe, and this time a run scored on the second Diamondbacks error of the inning.

Chris Iannetta and Garrett Hampson made sure the make them pay for it with back-to-back single up the middle, tying the game at four runs apiece.

The tie lasted all of one batter, as Jones greeted Anderson with a concourse shot to left field on an inside cutter, his sixth home run of the season. Marte kept the pressure on with a single and Bud Black had seen enough, pulling his starter before he had recorded an out in the fifth.

On came Bryan Shaw who has had a fantastic season to this point, but he grooved a cutter to Escobar and watched it fly well over the wall in center for a two-run homer, giving the Diamondbacks a 7-4 lead.

The Rockies got back into it in the sixth when a two-out single chased starter Robbie Ray from the game and Ryan McMahon welcomed T.J. McFarland with a two-run, left-on-left, screaming line drive home run off the back wall of the Colorado bullpen, over the head of an always-celebrating Harrison Musgrave.

But again the home team surrendered all of the momentum they had just gained when Seunghwan Oh gave up a two-run shot to Marte in the top of the seventh. It was the fourth round-tripper for the Diamondbacks in the game.

They added another in the eighth against Chad Bettis to make it 10-6.

Arizona turned to lefty Andrew Chafin in the bottom of the ninth and it didn’t work out against a pair of lefty Colorado hitters. McMahon, who stayed in the game on a double switch, sliced a single through the left side then jogged around the bases when Charlie Blackmon hammered a hanging breaking ball deep over the wall in right for his fourth home run of the season.

The Diamondbacks went then to former-Rockie Greg Holland who walked Story, gave up a single to Arenado, and walked a pinch-hitting Daniel Murphy to load the bases, still with nobody out in the two-run game.

Dahl hit a hard grounder but Ahmed made a nice play to pick it and get the force out at second. Still, a run scored and there were runners at the corners with just one away. Dahl even managed to swipe second to take the traditional double play out of order, but Desmond and Iannetta struck out to leave the tying run at third and winning run at second.