The Arizona Diamondbacks’ postseason hopes got a boost Monday afternoon: A visit from the road-weary Rockies.<\/p>\n
Colorado arrived in the desert having lost 11 of its last 13 road games, then continued the downward spiral with a 4-2 loss at cavernous Chase Field.<\/p>\n
Unlike several of the road losses that preceded it, this one didn’t require a bullpen implosion for things to go south.<\/p>\n
Not with D-backs sinker-ball sorcerer Merrill Kelly in full command (61 of 91 pitches for strikes) before he exited with an apparent injury at the start of the eighth inning.<\/p>\n
The youthful Rockies struck out 12 times against the right-hander, and 14 times total, in another shaky outing away from Coors Field. They are now 21-49 on the road and 50-87 overall.<\/p>\n
“He’s a good pitcher … and he pitched today, he really did. We just couldn’t solve the mix,” Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters in Phoenix. “… (He throws) a lot of pitches at the bottom that have action. Out of the hand they look like strikes and then they dive, we just couldn’t dig them out.”<\/p>\n
The D-backs didn’t hit Colorado starter Peter Lambert particularly hard either, but did enough damage to end a two-game slide and maintain a hold on the last NL wild card spot.<\/p>\n
Lambert didn’t get into trouble until he issued a walk with one out in the third inning. The next batter, Corbin Carroll, ripped a slider down the first base line for a run-scoring triple. Lambert limited the damage by getting Alek Thomas to hit a weak fly ball to shallow center and striking out Tommy Pham, but he got into trouble again at the start of the fourth.<\/p>\n
The D-backs strung together four hits to open the frame, including doubles from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Jace Peterson, to score three runs before an out was recorded.<\/p>\n
“I guess it all came down to that fourth inning, just let it snowball on me a little bit,” said Lambert, who threw 62 of 94 pitches for strikes. “It kind of happened really fast, and just in the moment I should have taken a step back and slowed everything down.”<\/p>\n
Lambert retired nine straight after that, then was pulled after the sixth having given up six hits, one walk and four runs with five strikeouts.<\/p>\n
“He hung in there … they just bunched the four hits together,” Black said. “I thought Peter pitched well… kept us in the game. His stuff looked good. It was another strong outing of re-establishing himself as a major league starter.”<\/p>\n
Arizona’s four runs were more than enough support for Kelly, who faced the minimum through four innings and didn’t give up a hit until Nolan Jones poked a single to center field with one out in the fifth.<\/p>\n
Rookie Hunter Goodman drove in his seventh runner since getting called up last week, hitting a sharp line drive to left that scored Jones, but Brendan Rodgers was thrown out at third to end the inning.<\/p>\n
Colorado didn’t get another runner past second base until there were two outs in the ninth.<\/p>\n
That was Elias Diaz brought home Ezequiel Tovar with a double down the left field line. Jones came to the plate representing the potential tying run, but closer Paul Sewald got him to fly out to center.<\/p>\n