The biggest blockade to a Rockies run toward the postseason sat within eyesight Friday night at . Their destiny wore gray. The Arizona Diamondbacks streaked into Denver on a season-high run of seven consecutive victories, but in a ping-pong rally through this season, the rivals remained nearly even.
“When they’re right there in front of you and you know what’s at stake, in our eyes, it’s a bigger deal,” Colorado manager Bud Black said.
That breezy noise blowing behind Arizona’s 9-5 victory over the punchless Rockies was not the wind in the D-backs’ sails. It was the sound of a series of strikeouts, 10 whiffs in the Rockies’ first five innings, as Colorado kicked off a critical weekend series against their division rival with a thud.
The Rockies (72-62) fell to 10 games above even for just the third time since May 20. And Arizona (77-58) moved 4 1/2 games ahead for the first of two National League wild-card berths. Worse still, the (71-64) sneaked a 1-0 victory over the , stepping just 1 1/2 games behind Colorado.
“Sometimes you look at the scoreboard in right field,” right fielder said. “But I’ve been through this before. It’s all about us, not about what other teams are doing. Win. Just win. It doesn’t matter how.”
Through 12 games before Friday, the Rockies and Diamondbacks split with six wins apiece. September afforded the Rockies an opportunity to make a move for the top wild-card spot and a home game Oct. 4 for a one-game playoff. They will play seven times this month, including four in Phoenix starting Sept. 11.
A three-game series at Coors Field to kick off the final full month started with a flood of empty Rockies at-bats. Taijuan Walker, Arizona’s lanky 24-year-old right-hander, struck out eight batters in three innings. Ian Desmond’s inning-ending groundout to the shortstop in the third was the only non-K out.
Through five innings, Desmond was the only Rockies hitter Walker failed to strike out. He left after five with 10 Ks and three walks and the Rockies’ three hits off him yielded two runners stranded on third base.
Walker became just the second pitcher in Arizona’s history to record as many as eight strikeouts for a game’s first eight outs, after Dan Haren got nine against the Dodgers in 2010.
“He was effectively wild,” Desmond said of Walker. “He had us off balance.”
The Diamondbacks, though, got to Colorado rookie lefty Kyle Freeland for a run in each of the first three innings. A.J. Pollock singled in David Peralta in the first, Walker’s infield single in the second sent Brandon Drury home, and J.D. Martinez’s sacrifice fly to center in the third scored Pollock, who had tripled.
“I didn’t set a good tone for the game,” Freeland said. “It felt like I was battling through everything.”
Desmond finally kick-started a spark in the sixth when the left fielder led off with a single, then scored on Gonzalez’s double to right field. hit a high fly ball to center field to sacrifice Gonzalez in from third and the Rockies cut Arizona’s lead to 4-2.
With two on and two outs, faced an extreme defensive shirt that placed two Diamondbacks outfielders in right field and one in center, leaving left field wide open. A pulled line drive to the left-fielder corner might have left the third baseman shagging the ball and an inside-the-park home run. LeMahieu flied out down the right-field line.
“I could have pulled a homer down the left field line with a ground ball,” LeMahieu said.
A seventh inning filled with Rockies walks and errors turned the outcome into a blowout. Catcher Jonathan Lucroy, pitcher and first baseman all committed errors, the Rockies’ first three-error inning since 2015. It set up ‘s three-run pinch-hit homer to right field for a seven-run Arizona lead.
On June 20, the Rockies were 19 games above .500 and rolling like no team in club history. Since then, they are 25-36, the worst record in the NL West. In their most pivotal series of the season so far, the Rockies continued to slump. The Diamondbacks might not be in eyesight for very long.
