Diamondbacks 9, Rockies 3: No fireworks on Kelly’s watch in loss

There were some solid individual performances, but not enough to life the Rox over the Snakes

The Rockies had some nice defensive plays and a solid relief outing from Ty Blach on Friday, but those were not enough to overcome the Diamondbacks on Friday. Despite some late life, Colorado fell 9-3 to the visitors, dropping them to 11 games under .500 on the season.

Senza’s early exit

Antonio Senzatela was today’s starting pitcher, but he wasn’t in the game for very long. The right-hander tossed just two innings and allowed three earned runs before being pulled from the game. Those runs came quickly as Josh Rojas led the game off with a double before scoring on Alek Thomas’ subsequent triple. He would then be brought home on Christan’s Walker’s RBI single before Senzatela finally ended the frame. Another run would score in the top of the second, on Carson Kelly’s second home run of the season.

Senzatela appeared to be showing discomfort in his throwing shoulder, and once removed from the game went down to the clubhouse area with a member of the athletic training staff. We’ll see what, if anything, this means for an already-ailing Rockies rotation as Germán Márquez also left his most recent start with a cut on his finger.

Blach relieves Rockies

Seeing Senzatela exit so early was tough for Rockies fans, and with the team already down three runs, Ty Blach entered in an unenviable position to stop the bleeding. He did just that, pitching four strong innings of relief and keeping Colorado in the game. Blach retired the first seven batters he faced and surrendered just one run, that blemish coming on noted Rockie-killer David Peralta’s 420-foot home run, his tenth of the season.

Peralta is hitting just shy of .350 in his career against Colorado.

Kelly’s lockdown start

Merrill Kelly was able to shut down Colorado’s offense all day, nary allowing a significant scoring opportunity and garnering weak contact throughout his start. He tossed seven innings, allowing just five hits and giving up two runs, inclduing one unearned run. He garnered just six swings and misses, but his 12 groundouts were enough to keep the home team’s bats cold all evening. He allowed the one run after an error by second baseman Geraldo Perdomo that put runners at first and third with no one out, but even that rally was snuffed after he got Elías Díaz to ground into a double play (scoring the one run) and getting Connor Joe to fly out. That was more than enough to keep the Rockies down, at least until the late innings.

Web gems

The Rockies defense was a shining star in the game as their left side of the infield showed out on Friday.

José Iglesias starting things off in the third, robbing Christian Walker of a hit with a nice grab on a tough hop at shortstop.

Ryan McMahon then had a pair of dazzlers, the first of which was a sliding snag of Walker (bummer for him, huh?)’s line drive just inside the foul line. The second was a phenomenal play on Kelly’s seventh-inning hopper that saw “RyMac” move to his right into foul territory before throwing across his body – and the diamond – for the out.

RyMac jack, plus a birthday homer!

Robert Stephenson’s rough seventh inning (which included a two-run Alec Thomas homer) put the Rockies down 6-1 entering the bottom of the frame, but they’d get one back on Ryan McMahon’s seventh home run of the season, a majestic fly to right field.

Charlie Blackmon got in on the action in the eighth inning, homering off of Arizona reliever Sean Poppen for his 13th of the season. That’s just his second-ever home run on his birthday, and with it he passes Larry Walker for the second-most total bases in Rockies history at 2521.

Despite the late homers, the Rockies couldn’t quite muster up the offense to get back into the game (Robert Stephenson allowed four runs, and Carlos Estévez another), and Arizona took home the victory in game one of the series.

Up Next

Game two is tomorrow as the Snakes stay at mile high through the weekend. That contest will see Arizona’s newly-acquired starter Dallas Keuchel (2-5, 7.93 ERA) make his second start for his new team. He’ll be opposed by Austin Gomber (3-7, 6.55 ERA).

First pitch is at 7:10pm MDT. See you then!