Shaw's miserable inning costs Rockies again

DENVER – There was a remarkably entertaining and well-played (if not a bit offense heavy) game going on at Coors Field on a beautiful night in Denver right up until Bryan Shaw completely lost it in the eighth.

It’s always difficult to put a loss entirely on the shoulders of one player in the game of baseball, but Shaw quite literally threw this game away with what turned out to be a five-run throwing error. He also gave up six total runs on four hits and two walks, recording just two outs.

The Diamondbacks starting the scoring with Paul Goldschmidt’s first home run of the day, a solo shot deep over the wall in center.

Colorado struck back immediately in the bottom of the frame with their own hot hitter, Trevor Story, who blasted his own long home run to center but did so with DJ LeMahieu aboard (via a single) to put the Rockies on top.

The back-and-forth continued with a Nick Ahmed solo shot in the second that tied the game and gave the national television audience all kinds of Coors Field jokes with three home runs in the first three half-innings.

Story continued his streak of terrorizing the Diamondbacks with his second two-run homer in as many at-bats, unloading on one in the third to score Charlie Blackmon, who had singled, and give the Rockies a 4-2 advantage.

Naturally, that lead would last only a few minutes. Bettis nearly escaped the top of the fourth after surrendering a leadoff double, but he walked Jon Jay with two outs to bring Goldschmidt to the plate and he paid for it with the lead. The D-Backs slugger smashed his fourth home run of the last two games in a full count to put Arizona back on top at 5-4.

Again, though, there was an answer.

Ian Desmond led off the fourth by drawing a walk. He moved to second on a Noel Cuevas single and hustled over to third on a flyout off the bat of Tony Wolters.

Ryan McMahon followed with an excellent situational at-bat, waiting back on a two-strike changeup and driving it to center for what looked to be extra bases, though he had to settle for the game-tying sac fly. But LeMahieu followed with the XBH that McMahon just missed, driving his sixth homer of the season over the wall in center to give the Rockies a 7-5 lead.

Jeff Hoffman, making his first appearance at the MLB level in 2018, came on and worked the fifth and sixth more cleanly than any middle-reliever of late for the Rockies, allowing just one single. He stayed on for the seventh and gave up a leadoff one-bagger to Goldschmidt but made a nice defensive play himself to turn a 1-4-3 double play.

He couldn’t quite finish it off, though, walking Daniel Descalso on his 40th pitch out of the ‘pen, and Bud Black decided it was time to hand the ball to Jake McGee.

David Peralta jumped on the first pitch McGee threw, lining one into the left-centerfield gap and Descalso came all the way around to score after Gerardo Parra’s diving attempt came up empty.

But once again the Rockies bullpen came unglued and once again Bryan Shaw was right in the middle of it. After giving up a soft single to right to open the eighth, Shaw got a weak ground ball right back to the mound, but in a rush to try to turn a double play, he bobbled the ball twice then made a terrible decision to throw the ball to first, airmailing well over Ian Desmond’s head, allowing the tying run to score.

He bounced back to strike out Jon Jay which meant he was a groundball double play away from preserving the tie. He got a groundball from Jake Lamb but it was hammered up the middle and Peralta followed by pulling one through the right side to plate another pair and just like that the Diamondbacks took a 10-7 lead.

All throughout the inning, a chorus of boos rang out at Coors Field.

Of the last 12 games the Rockies have lost, they led going into at least the sixth inning in eight of them.

Final Stats:

Chad Bettis: 4 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 6 K

Jeff Hoffman: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Jake McGee: 0.1, 2 H, 0 ER

Bryan Shaw: 0.2 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K

Brooks Pounders: 1.1 IP, 0 ER, 2 K

Trevor Story: 3-for-4, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2 HR (14)

What’s Next:

The Rockies try to salvage a game in the series on Sunday afternoon. Kyle Freeland will take on Zach Godly. First pitch at 1:10 Mountain Time.