PHOENIX – Rocktober died hard in the Arizona desert. When it was over, nine innings that required three excruciating hours and 54 interminable minutes, Rockies outfielder leaned hard on the dugout steps, not wanting to go home.
After 163 games, it was over. Gone, the finality too fast for Blackmon to fully process.
The Diamondbacks eliminated Colorado 11-8 Wednesday in a game that was unforgettable, for both its unrelenting drama and pain that will linger with the Rockies for a long, long time.
“Itap shocking. The season’s over. And I’m going home. We lost. Right now, I feel horrible,” said Rockies outfielder . He is a free agent. This was probably the last of his 1,120 games in a Colorado uniform.
“But let me tell you this: The season was beautiful, from the beginning until the last out. I’m taking so many great memories with me,” said CarGo, clicking through a whole scrapbook of keepsake photos recorded in his mind. “Watching , hitting for a cycle with a walk-off to win a game. Seeing a rookie, Kyle Freeland, almost throw a no-hitter. And Chad Bettis, coming back from cancer, pitching again in the big leagues. When I think of 2017, it won’t be about losing a close one in the last game. The spraying of champagne … thatap what I will remember.”
Don’t ever forget this game, no matter how much it hurts. This game is why baseball is about more than the money for even a pro hardened by the business. This game is why fans risk broken hearts. It was a classic case of a young Colorado team, refusing to quit, after falling behind six runs.
For the Rockies, it was a hot mess from the jump. The theme for the night?
Hold my beer.
The fight’s the thing, even if it ultimately proves to be in vain.
In all the 25 years of his young life, Rockies starting pitcher has never, ever hung a curveball in a worse spot than his first pitch to Diamondbacks MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt in the bottom of the first inning. The curve was as fat as a balloon, and Goldschmidt bashed it like a piñata.
About the same time the three-run homer splashed down in the left-field bleachers, the shattered pieces of Gray’s ego hit the dirt of the mound. “A lot of regrets,” Gray said.
Gray was gone early in the second inning, forced to take that long walk of shame to the Colorado dugout, surrendering four runs before he could record five outs. He has the slider worthy of an ace, but not the slow heartbeat. Gray is good, but he’s not Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber or any top-of-the-rotation starters trusted by a serious World Series contender.
After a nightmarish outing that will leave a mark, Gray has two choices: Flush it. Or be crushed by it.
Down 6-0 after three innings, Colorado could have surrendered. Instead, the Rockies said: Hold my beer.
Climb out of a six-run hole against Arizona ace Zack Greinke, whose record at Chase Field in 2017 was 13-1? “That’s long odds,” Rockies manager Bud Black said.
It seemed like an epic fail waiting to happen.
But there’s something about this team, something as stubborn as love, something catcher Jonathan Lucroy detected the instant he walked in the Colorado clubhouse after being traded from Texas in July. “This team is tighter, more like family than others I’ve played on,” said Lucroy, who has eight years of service in the majors.
In a hole so deep it felt like 43-8 (Broncos in the Super Bowl) or 7-0 (Avalanche against Detroit) or any of the most gut-wrenching playoff scores in Colorado sports history, the Rockies began digging out, one spoonful at a time. They chased Greinke with four runs in the fourth inning, with a double by Lucroy the big knock.
Rent-a-catcher? No way. General manager has got to bring Lucroy back next season. Can I get an amen from the congregation?
You want to bury these guys? You better bring a dump truck full of dirt. After Colorado pulled to within 6-5, a two-out triple by Arizona relief pitcher Archie Bradley padded the Diamondback’s cushion back to three runs in bottom of the seventh inning. Time to quit? Never.
“It was a heavyweight fight, going back and forth,” Black said.
In the top of the eighth, Nolan Arenado and clubbed back-to-back homers off Bradley to bring Colorado back from the brink, suddenly down only 8-7.
Well, well, well. Hold my beer.
The problem? Closer Greg Holland, who came on to pitch for the Rockies in the eighth inning, coughed up three runs, the knockout punch a two-out triple by A.J. Pollock. “I feel like that’s a game we would have won had I kept it to a one-run game,” Holland said.
On Saturday, when the Rockies clinched their first playoff berth since 2009, there was champagne on every happy face in the Colorado clubhouse. Fewer than 100 hours after that celebration, every eye in the visiting clubhouse at Chase Field stung with pain.
“It was a crazy game,” Black said.
Rocktober magic died hard in the Arizona desert.
When it was over, Blackmon wrapped his arms around Gray in the clubhouse, whispering in the ear of a young pitcher whose eyes were wet with disappointment. Blackmon refused to let go for a very long time, cradling Gray in a hug, wrapping him in forgiveness. If the Rockies were going to hurt, they were going to hurt together. Like brothers do.
Anybody need a beer?
