DENVER – The Colorado Rockies were about due for a dud. After packing as much drama and excitement into their last five games as possible, they faced the Arizona Diamondbacks in the second game of a mid-week series at Coors Field and laid down a stinker, losing 16-5 in definitively non-dramatic fashion.
Jeff Hoffman looked just fine to start, maybe even great, over the first three innings but just lost it in the fourth, putting the Rockies into a hole they would never be able to climb out of.
In the bottom the second, Mark Reynolds launched one 420 feet over the “Bridich Barrier” fence in right-center field to give the Rockies a 1-0 lead. It was his 18th home run of the season and 56th RBI, which puts him in fourth place in MLB at driving in runs.
Carlos Gonzalez followed that by smashing on the ground through the shift, all the way to the wall in the right-center field bat. The 116 mph exit velocity on that makes it the hardest hit ball CarGo has all season. But Gonzalez was stranded there when Ian Desmond ground out to the pitcher, Trevor Story struck out, Tony Wolters was intentionally walked, and Hoffman struck out to end the inning.
Then things got ugly for the home team.
Hoffman experienced by far his roughest inning of the season in the fourth, a frame he just couldn’t seem to escape. He had allowed just eight runs over 35 innings coming into the fourth where he allowed nine runs alone. It seemed a couple times early on like he might avoid the worst of the damage, but a few pitches that just missed led to a few that missed by a whole lot, and Arizona teed off.
The big blows came on doubles from Paul Goldschmidt, Brandon Drury (who got two hits the inning) and Chris Iannetta, though pretty much everyone in the Arizona lineup tallied a hit. Jordan Lyles came on for Hoffman in the middle of the mess and gave up a big two-run double to Jake Lamb and another single to Drury before DJ LeMahieu made a spectacular catch to finally end the madness. All told, the Diamondbacks scored 10 runs on nine hits in the inning. By those numbers, it was the best offensive inning Arizona has ever had on the road.
The ugliest play of the inning came when pitcher Taijuan Walker lined a single to center field that Charlie Blackmon mishandled, committing an error as the fourth and fifth runs of the inning came across. Getting an out there would have preserved the game at 3-1. As it was, the contest spiraled out of control in a very short time.
Colorado got a couple back in the fifth on a two-out, two-RBI double from … who else? … Nolan Arenado to make it 10-3.
Even that momentary head-fake at a potential comeback was short-lived, though, as the Diamondbacks came right back to plate a pair in the sixth, more or less erasing the Rockies small rally. Arizona got two more in the seventh on a home run from Nick Ahmed, officially making the game a laugher.
Raimel Tapia grabbed the Rockies a feel-good (or at least feel-OK) run in the seventh with a pinch-hit triple, scoring on a LeMahieu groundout. Tapia is 15-for-his-last-25 with just two strikeouts.
But again, Arizona couldn’t even let that slide, scoring another pair in the ninth off of Mike Dunn.
As bad as this one was for the boys in purple (they actually wore black tonight) it was just one game and they still have a chance to take the series in tomorrow afternoon’s rubber match.
Colorado fell to 47-27 on the year and the Diamondbacks pulled to within one game. The Los Angeles Dodgers could unseat the Rockies for first place in the National League West tonight with a win over the New York Mets.
