{"id":55609,"date":"2022-07-08T02:11:14","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T06:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=55609"},"modified":"2022-07-08T02:13:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T06:13:53","slug":"diamondbacks-rockies-20220707","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/07\/08\/diamondbacks-rockies-20220707\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks Bow Late to Rockies"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 3<\/h2>\n<p>PHOENIX, July 7 \u2014 Twice the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/04\/06\/diamondbacks-preview-2022-improvement-looms\/\" target=\"_self\">Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> fell behind to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/04\/06\/colorado-rockies-preview-2022\/\" target=\"_self\">Colorado Rockies<\/a> before tying the game again. However, the third time was the charm for the Rockies, as they hung on to defeat the Diamondbacks, 4\u20133, in front of a snoozing Thursday night crowd of 11,727 at Chase Field.<\/p>\n<p>The Rockies knocked Dallas Keuchel around in the first inning a bit before he settled down. Left fielder Connor Joe and designated hitter Kris Bryant led off with consecutive doubles, the latter scoring the former. Two batters later, second baseman Brendan Rodgers brought Bryant in, making the score 2\u20130 in favor of the Rockies. The Diamondbacks tied the score in bottom of the second off Austin Gomber. Second baseman Buddy Kennedy doubled to left with one out, scoring on a follow-up home run by catcher Carson Kelly.<\/p>\n<p>The Rockies inched ahead in the top of the fourth, beginning with a two-out double to the right-field corner by right fielder Randal Grichuk. He scored on a follow-up single by third baseman Ryan McMahon, giving the Rockies a 3\u20132 lead. The Diamondbacks equalized in the bottom half. Designated hitter Ketel Marte led off with a single but was later cut down trying to advance to second on a ball that got away from catcher Elias Diaz. First baseman Christian Walker shook off the lost baserunner, doubling into the left-field corner. Two batters later, Kelly dumped a single to left, plating Walker.<\/p>\n<h3>Rockies Pull Away, Diamondbacks Can\u2019t Counter<\/h3>\n<p><a id=\"OkqECgw7RcNxqFBmpVOz1A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1407439148\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'OkqECgw7RcNxqFBmpVOz1A',sig:'AlnZJJYDSveKaRCdeUE85IJ2aENw2VWWTy3aU-n2Qqo=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1407439148',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Neither team had another runner in scoring position until the top of the eighth, when first baseman C.J. Cron blooped a double to shallow right off reliever Noe Ramirez, a ball that Walker almost snagged with what would have been a high-difficulty, highlight-reel, over-the-shoulder basket catch on the run. Ramirez, however, did not yield, as he retired Rodgers on a fly to left for the third out.<\/p>\n<p>The Diamondbacks got two aboard in the eighth after a two-out walk by Marte. When Walker followed with a single, reserve infielder Sergio Alcantara pinch-ran for the ailing Marte. They were stranded when Alek Thomas, pinch-hitting for Kennedy, struck out, ending the inning.<\/p>\n<p>The top of the ninth brought closer Mark Melancon to the hill. Shortstop Jose Iglesias welcomed him with a hot grounder for a single. Grichuk followed with a deep fly to the gap. Thomas tracked it and attempted a diving catch, but it was barely out of his reach. Iglesias scored, giving the Rockies a 4\u20133 lead. A groundout, intentional walk, and two strikeouts later, the Diamondbacks were out of the inning and had one more chance to tie. But a two-out walk was all they could muster in the bottom of the ninth off closer Daniel Bard, who notched his 17th save of the season.<\/p>\n<h3>Postgame Reflections<\/h3>\n<p>Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo lamented the result. \u201cYou\u2019d feel like, after the type of series that we had against San Francisco, things would have pushed into a good spot for us today. But we didn&#8217;t win a baseball game, and that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re judged by. So we&#8217;re a little bit frustrated by that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt like we had some opportunities. We built something in the eighth inning; we kept pushing as hard as we could. And we just came up on the short end of it. There&#8217;s a little bit of frustration that we&#8217;re working through right now, but we\u2019ve got to identify the things that we did well, the things that we didn&#8217;t do well, keep pushing forward, and come out tomorrow and try and win a baseball game.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Dallas Keuchel<\/h4>\n<p>Keuchel lasted seven innings, giving up three earned runs on seven hits while walking none and striking out four. It was his second Quality Start of the season \u2014 first as a Diamondback and first since May 8. He said he felt \u201cmore in control\u201d Thursday night, \u201cand that\u2019s good.\u201d He added that his formula was to go back to what has worked for him before. \u201cI became reliant on my cutter. That&#8217;s always been a secondary pitch to me, (but) I was using (it) as a primary pitch. I&#8217;m not going to be consistently good if I rely on my cutter, (yet) that&#8217;s what I started doing. Guys took advantage of it when it just kind of spun up there. My four-seamer naturally cuts anyway but at a higher-velocity clip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStrommy (pitching coach Brent Strom) and I and Carson and a couple of other guys (were talking). (I thought), \u2018Why did I fall in love with the cutter when my two-seam is my pitch? Pop a few four-seams, usually 10% or so.\u2019 We just started riding that a little bit more. I think, moving forward, that&#8217;s another really good pitch to offset the two-seam, but the two-seam movement today was really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Looking Ahead<\/h3>\n<p>Carlos Estevez (2\u20134) earned the win, while Melancon (3\u20137) took the loss, both in relief. The Diamondbacks (37\u201346) and Rockies (36\u201347) play the second game of their four-game series Friday evening. Zac Gallen (4\u20132, 3.40 ERA) and Chad Kuhl (5\u20135, 3.83 ERA) will start for the Diamondbacks and Rockies, respectively, in a battle of right-handers. First pitch will be at 6:40 pm Arizona Time.<\/p>\n<h4>Main Photo Credits<\/h4>\n<p><em>PHOENIX, July 7 \u2014 Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly bats in the bottom of the seventh inning against Colorado Rockies pitcher Lucas Gilbreath (not pictured). Kelly finished 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI. (Photo by Evan Thompson)<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Players\/managers mentioned:<\/h4>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/keuchda01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dallas Keuchel<\/a>,<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/joeco01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Connor Joe<\/a>,<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryankr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kris Bryant<\/a>,<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rodgebr02.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brendan Rodgers<\/a>,<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gombeau01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Gomber<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kennebu01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buddy Kennedy<\/a>,<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=kellyca02,kelly-004car&amp;search=Carson+Kelly&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carson Kelly<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/grichra01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Randal Grichuk<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcmahry01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan McMahon<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/marteke01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ketel Marte<\/a>,<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/diazel01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elias Diaz<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walkech02.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christian Walker<\/a>, <\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/croncj01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">C.J. Cron<\/a>,<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/ramirno01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Noe Ramirez<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alcanse01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sergio Alcantara<\/a>,<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thomaal01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alek Thomas<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/melanma01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Melancon<\/a>,<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/i\/iglesjo01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Iglesias<\/a>,<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bardda01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Bard<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/lovulto01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Torey Lovullo<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strombr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brent Strom<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/estevca01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carlos Estevez<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/galleza01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zac Gallen<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kuhlch01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chad Kuhl<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilbrlu01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=referral\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lucas Gilbreath<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 3 PHOENIX, July 7 \u2014 Twice the Arizona Diamondbacks fell behind to the Colorado Rockies before tying the game again. However, the third time was the charm for the Rockies, as they hung on to defeat the Diamondbacks, 4\u20133, in front of a snoozing Thursday night crowd of 11,727 at Chase Field. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2901,"featured_media":55610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,32,1071],"tags":[1045,524,4645,94,1089],"class_list":["post-55609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diamondbacks","category-rockies","category-mlb","tag-carson-kelly","tag-dallas-keuchel","tag-diamondbacks-featured","tag-nl-west","tag-randal-grichuk"],"modified_by":"Evan Thompson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}