DENVER – Ian Desmond wasn’t in the starting lineup less than 24 hours after drawing a walk that tied the game in an eventual walk-off the night before.
But he sure was in the finishing lineup.
It looked like he had won the game this time with a home run in the bottom of the 11th but it was ruled a double.
After a long back-and-forth battle, though, it was the young Raimel Tapia who brought him in with a single, giving the Colorado Rockies a 4-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks and their third walk-off win in the last four games.
The game ended up as a battle of the bullpen’s after starters Jon Gray and Zack Greinke pitched extremely well through the first several innings.
Gray was cruising right along until the fourth when he lost a battle with Jerrod Dyson, issuing a leadoff walk.
Then, a bit of sound baseball execution for the Diamondbacks made for a tough break for Gray when Illdermo Vargas hit a grounder right to the shortstop position for what could have been a double play.
But Dyson was in motion and Brendan Rodgers was moving to cover the bag only to watch the grounder roll right by the position he had just vacated.
Instead of bases empty and two outs, Gray now faced runners at the corners with nobody away.
Ketel Marte took advantage of the situation by lifting a lazy fly ball to center for a sac fly but Gray left it at that, working out of the jam from there.
Colorado answered with their very first batter in the bottom of the fourth. David Dahl saw a pitch he liked and crushed it over the wall in center for his fourth home run of the season, tying the game at one run apiece.
After a quick fifth inning, Gray found trouble again in the sixth. He still wasn’t being hit especially hard, but a series of one-out singles from Vargas, Marte, and Eduardo Escobar who got underneath a curveball below the zone and lofted it to shallow right, produced another run to give the Diamondbacks a 2-1 lead.
That also led Manager Bud Black to go to his bullpen, calling on Jairo Diaz who got a ground out and a little help on a diving catch by Raimel Tapia in left to escape the inning without any further damage.
The Rockies missed a great chance to even the score or take the lead against Greinke in the sixth. With two outs, Nolan Arenado and Daniel Murphy both singled and Ryan McMahon worked an excellent at-bat to draw a walk, loading the bases.
But Rodgers hit his liner the other way right at the first baseman to leave ’em loaded.
That inning was key, though, in driving up Greinke’s pitch count and getting him out of the game.
The Diamondbacks got an insurance run on a solo homer by Nick Ahmed against Diaz in the seventh but Colorado came storming back against their bullpen.
The rally got started on the first career MLB hit for Yonathan Daza who was called up before the game to replace the injured Charlie Blackmon.
Daza sprayed a single to right and advanced on a wild pitch in front of a pinch-hit walk for Mark Reynolds. Tapia hit a grounder back to the pitcher but kept the inning alive by beating out the relay throw to first, avoiding the double play.
Dahl followed that with a fantastic AB wherein the fouled off numerous tough pitches before walking to load the bases.
That gave Arenado a chance in a big spot, and once again he came through, pulling a line drive to left for a single that scored a pair and tied the game.
Scott Oberg came on and pitched around a two-out single to send the game to the bottom of the ninth still deadlocked.
Trevor Story came off the bench and drew a leadoff walk and swiped second. But Ian Desmond couldn’t move him up, striking out after a long at-bat. Tapia followed that with a walk and Dahl drove one to deep left, but it was tracked down in the gap. Arenado similarly drove the ball hard the other way, but also saw it die on the warning track as the game went to extras.
Black handed the baseball to Bryan Shaw who immediately found himself in a bind after a liner off the bat of Dyson was dropped in center by Desmond, going into the box score as a triple.
The Rockies, naturally, pulled the infield in and the Diamondbacks captitulated to that strategy by hitting a couple of grounders right at fielders.
Shaw walked Escobar with two outs and allowed him to take second but he got a third weak grounder to end the frame and escape any damage.
Colorado missed another chance to win it in the 10th. One-out walks from McMahon and Rodgers gave the home fans hope but Wolters flew out to center and McMahon committed a cardinal sin, making the third out at third base trying to advance on a ball in the dirt.
But Seunghwan Oh had a quick 1-2-3 inning to get the Rox right back to the plate, setting the stage for Ian Desmond’s dramatics and Tapia’s moment.
