It was an odd day in Arizona as the Rox faced the Snakes in a game with no scoring that wasn’t quite boring lacked any raked. There were certainly lots of missed opportunities for the Rox, and it was a former Rock who walked-off on the Rox when Daniel Descalso knocked the block off of a Jordan Lyles pitch that really took off.
Patrick Corbin and German Marquez matched each other’s brilliance over the first six frames. Corbin allowed the Rockies just two, Marquez scattered six knocks in the pitcher’s duel.
Marquez lasted just four innings his last time out in his season debut for Colorado — getting knocked around by the Washington Nationals which seems to be par for the course these days — but he rebounded as well as any Rockies fan could have hoped. He made great use of his fastball and sinker, but most importantly was able to locate the offspeed stuff well enough to keep Diamondbacks hitters off balance all game. He allowed one extra-base hit in the game.
The Rockies only had one baserunner — on a Dustin Garneau double — going into the fifth inning. But in the fifth, it looked like Colorado would break out in a big way, loading the bases with nobody out; Mark Reynolds and Trevor Story walked around Ian Desmond’s first hit as a Rockie and Colorado’s second hit of the game. But Garneau popped out on the infield, Marquez ground out to third (fielder’s choice at home) and Charlie Blackmon ground out to first to end the inning with the game still tied at zero.
The lack of scoring persisted until after both starters were pulled after six innings.
Marquez’ final line: 6 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K. Hew threw 67 of his 97 pitches for strikes.
Scott Oberg replaced Marquez and pitched a clean inning. He was relieved by Adam Ottavino who threw a pair of innings for the first time since 2014 and did not give up a base runner, striking out two and lowering his season ERA to 1.42.
After nine full innings were played, neither team had managed to score. In fact, neither team had managed to get a runner to third base. The Rockies doubled their hit total in the tenth with singles from Garneau and Gerardo Parra, but they were stranded yet again.
With one out in the 11th, DJ LeMahieu drew a walk and Carlos Gonzalez singled on the infield (thanks to a double clutch from Chris Owings) but Mark Reynolds grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Once the 11th concluded with the game still scoreless it became the longest such game in Chase Field history. The Rockies were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring positions, the Diamondbacks 0-for-4.
In the bottom of the 12th with two outs, A.J. Pollock hit a screamer off the very top of the high wall in center field. It would have been a home run if it had been just a few feet higher or to the left. Garneau whiffed on a fastball in the strike zone and Pollock moved up to third. Jordan Lyles walked David Peralta to bring Paul Goldschmidt to the plate. Bud Black elected to have his righty face the Diamondbacks superstar and he got ahead in a 1-2 count but ended up hitting him to load the bases. He got Jake Lamb to ground out, though, giving the Rockies one more inning.
One more inning is all they would get when former Rockie Daniel Descalso hit a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the 13th.
The Rockies fell to 16-10 but still lead the NL West.
