Rox pitching hammered again for fifth straight home loss

DENVER – The Colorado Rockies just can’t get any traction with their pitching right now, dropping their fifth straight home game after starter German Marquez pitched four ugly innings and the bullpen continued to look like a group in search for anything in the neighborhood of answers.

The offense once again showed promise and fight throughout the game but fell in defeat 9-4.

The Diamondbacks jumped on Marquez in the first with a one-out double from Paul Goldschmidt who came in on a single from former-Rockie Daniel Descalso.

The Rockies managed to scratch a run out in the second after Gerardo Parra reached on a two-base error, Chris Iannetta was intentionally walked, and Marquez managed to come through with his sixth base hit of the season, collecting his first RBI.

But the wheels came off the wagon for Marquez in the fourth, issuing a lead-off walk to Jon Jay before giving up three, no-doubt moonshot home runs to Goldschmidt, Jake Lamb, and David Peralta. He couldn’t get any of his pitches to the edge of the zone and the Diamondbacks just weren’t missing his mistakes.

Suddenly down 5-1, the Rockies struck back with a big inning of their own in the bottom of the fifth. Charlie Blackmon slapped an opposite-field home run to start the rally. With two outs, Carlos Gonzalez lofted a single into right-center field and came around on Trevor Story’s 12th home run of the year, his best attempt to match Arizona’s power display.

After Parra followed that with a single the other way, Ian Desmond gave the home crowd a jolt of excitement by driving a fly ball to deep right field, but it died on the warning track, falling for an out rather than a go-ahead homer.

Harrison Musgrave replaced Marquez after just four innings and faired well in his first frame but was bitten by a double off the bat of Ketel Marte (with a slight misplay from Parra in left) and a two-out single from Greinke, making up for the run-scoring hit he surrendered to his counterpart earlier.

Chris Rusin came on for the seventh and gave up a two-out double to Descalso but otherwise worked a clean inning. But, as has been the issue for him all season, he was unable to get through a second unscathed, walking Marte to lead off the eighth before surrendering a triple to Jeff Mathis and a sac fly to Chris Owings, giving Arizona an 8-4 advantage.

Brooks Pounders came on in the ninth and gave up Goldschmidt’s second home run of the game to make the final score 9-4.

Final Stats:

German Marquez: 4 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

Harrison Musgrave: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

Chris Rusin: 2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

Brooke Pounders: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER

Trevor Story: 2-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI HR (12)

Charlie Blackmon: 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, HR (13)

Gerardo Parra: 2-for-4, 1 R

What’s Next:

Game 2 of the series will see Chad Bettis take on Matt Koch. First pitch on Saturday night is at 5:15 Moutain Time.