If there was one saving grace about the previous three years of Rockies futility, it was that they weren’t the worst team in the NL West.
After dropping two of three to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field over the weekend, they don’t even have that in Year 4 of their current nosedive.
Colorado’s bullpen squandered a seventh-inning lead for the second time in three days Sunday, falling 6-4 to the D-backs to finish 2-6 in a seven-day, eight-game road swing through San Diego (1-4) and Phoenix (1-2).
Rockies reliever Alex Colome balked in the game-winning run with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the eighth inning. Sergio Alcantara added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly to left field, as Colorado continued to find new and excruciating ways to lose.
It marked the second straight appearance Colome gave up two earned runs in an eighth inning to take the loss — the other coming in Friday night’s 6-5 setback at Arizona.
“The peaks and valleys of a season and the ups and downs of a reliever happen,” Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters in Arizona. “It’s tough when you’re the closer or the eighth-inning guy. You’re magnified because of the time of the game and the importance of those outs.”
The Rockies loaded the bases in the ninth, but D-backs closer Mark Melancon got Randal Grichuk to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the game.
The loss dropped the Rockies to 48-63, matching a season-low 15 games under .500. They are now two games back of Arizona at the bottom of the NL West after going 5-13 over a brutal 17-day stretch.
“I think across baseball, the dog days are here,” Black told reporters. “This is the part of the season where guys, all players, all 800 players get a little worn down.
“… Most of our guys know this time of year can be such where you get a littler weary, but that’s the case for all teams. That’s all guys. You got to get through it and perform.”
Rockies starter Jose Urena battled over six innings, giving up three runs on seven hits (two homers), two strikeouts and three walks on 88 pitches (49 strikes).
The D-backs put runners on base in all but one inning against Urena, but a pair of ground-ball double plays in the fourth and fifth innings helped limit the damage.
“The results were good,” Black said. “… He battled, but we got to get the ball-strike ratio in a better spot.”
All four of the Rockies’ runs came during a disastrous sixth inning for D-backs reliever Kevin Ginkel — a frame highlighted by back-to-back doubles from Brendan Rodgers and C.J. Cron, as well as an RBI single from red-hot rookie Elehuris Montero.
But with D-backs starter Zach Davies brilliant through five scoreless innings, and the rest of Arizona’s bullpen solid outside of Ginkel, the Rockies could not turn that crooked number into a win.
Urena’s start was bookended by two big mistakes.
The first came with two outs and one on in the bottom of the first inning, when he left a 97 mph sinker up in the zone to D-backs slugger Christian Walker, who drilled it 431 feet into the left field seats for his 26th homer of the season.
The second was another elevated sinker with two outs in the sixth that Emmanuel Rivera drove the other way for a solo homer that skimmed over the right-field fence to pull within 4-3.
All things considered, it was a step in the right direction for Urena, who got shelled over his previous three starts (10.22 ERA ). Still, the Rockies lost for the fourth straight time with the right-hander on the mound.
“Six innings, three tuns, a lot of times that enables to you to win a game,” Black said.
Rockies right-hander Robert Stephenson issued a four-pitch walk to begin the bottom of the seventh, which the D-backs cashed in on Josh Rojas’ RBI double to even the score at 4-all.
Then Colome got into trouble the next frame when he loaded the bases on a Daulton Varsho double and back-to-back walks to Rivera and Jordan Luplow. Colome balked in Varsho with the count at 1-0 against Alcantara, who later lifted a 2-1 pitch to left to pull ahead 6-4.
“It looks as though he’s outside the zone,” Black said of Colome’s recent struggles.
Davies retired nine straight Rockies between the second and fifth innings. Yet the D-backs right-hander was pulled after five innings, and just 80 pitches.
Ryan McMahon drew a walk off Ginkel to begin the sixth, and the Rockies got doubles from Rodgers (ricochet off Ginkel) and Cron (liner down third base line) to even the score at 2-all.
One batter later, Montero smacked a liner to left for an RBI single that gave him his third straight two-hit game. It also extended his hitting streak to seven games and chased Ginkel before he recorded a single out.
Lefty Joe Mantiply kept the Rockies from blowing the game open from there, getting three straight outs — Connor Joe strikeout swinging, Garrett Hampson RBI sac fly and Yonathan Daza groundout — as Colorado took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the sixth that it eventually lost.
Four different Rockies had multiple hits, including Montero (2 for 4, one RBI), Cron (2 for 4, two RBIs), Rodgers (2 for 5) and Grichuk (2 for 4).
But following a familiar theme, the Rockies stranded 10 runners with bases-loaded situations in the first and ninth innings producing zero runs.
