ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

Rockies light up Archie Bradley in game-changing inning of D-backs’ loss

Jul 21, 2018, 12:24 AM | Updated: 12:47 am

(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)...

(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

PHOENIX — If the Diamondbacks or Rockies worried their timing would be off in the first game out of the All-Star break, both teams’ bats squelched those concerns on Friday.

That meant both pitching staffs didn’t.

Arizona led for the majority of the night as the teams traded blows before a meltdown by reliever Archie Bradley in the seventh inning ultimately turned what was a tight game throughout into a 11-10 D-backs loss at Chase Field.

Bradley allowed three hits and walked three more batters in 0.2 frames. Two runs scored before 24-year-old Rockies outfielder Raimel Tapia hit his third career home run in his 102nd MLB game. The grand slam during a six-run top of the seventh gave Colorado an 11-8 lead, its first since the middle of the first inning.

“One pitch away from really only giving up one run and couldn’t make that final pitch I needed to tonight so pretty frustrating,” Bradley said, “but the good news is I did blow the first game off the All-Star break last year and we did make the playoffs. If that’s a sign, then we’re going to be OK.

“Even with the bases loaded, you walk (outfielder Gerardo) Parra, even walking (catcher Tony) Wolters, it’s like OK, you still have a lead here,” the reliever added. “My job is to leave the game with the lead. You’re looking for that one pitch.”

In the first inning, Colorado jumped on Arizona starter Robbie Ray with Nolan Arenado’s two-run home run, his first of two on the day. The D-backs answered in the bottom of the frame by loading the bases and setting up Ketel Marte’s bases-loaded, two-RBI single. A passed ball that got behind Wolters then allowed Jake Lamb to score from third base, giving Arizona a 3-2 lead.

It was a back-and-forth from there, highlighted by a four-RBI night for Marte and Arenado plus a career-best five-hit night at the plate for the D-backs’ A.J. Pollock.

“Today was a tremendous day for him, and he’s in a very good place,” manager Torey Lovullo said of Pollock. “He’s understanding his swing, he’s in a consistent, loaded position to make good decisions on balls and strikes, and he’s not missing his pitch.”

The two clubs combined for 26 hits by the end of the game, and Ray and Colorado starter German Marquez were chased from the mound before the seventh frame.

Spent after 5.0 innings, Marquez allowed eight hits and six runs (five earned).

Ray wrapped the second-half opener after 5.1 innings with two strikeouts while allowing eight hits and five earned runs — four total were knocked in by Arenado homers in the first and fifth, which sandwiched a Marquez bloop RBI single into shallow right during the fourth.

Two key mishaps from Wolters appeared to be the difference in favor of the Diamondbacks through six innings.

After the first-inning passed ball that scored a run, Arizona stretched its lead to 7-5 in the bottom of the sixth on an arduous yet fruitful pinch-hit effort for Chris Owings. After a single, he stole second on a wild pitch, then while attempting to steal third got all the way home when Wolters threw to third base without a man covering, allowing the ball to trickle into left field.

Arizona led 8-5 to begin the fateful seventh, but the fortunes would end up evening out as the D-backs attempted a late rally.

After Arizona’s David Peralta doubled and reached home off a wild pitch in the eighth inning to pull Arizona within 11-9, D-backs catcher Alex Avila, with one out in the ninth, lined a ball to shallow right-center field with Lamb and Marte aboard.

Rockies center fielder Charlie Blackmon got a jump on the ball and made a diving grab with the tip of his glove, allowing the 10th Arizona run to score. But the out was just enough for Colorado to take the victory as the D-backs’ Jon Jay struck out to end the game.

“That’s why this game is so great,” Lovullo said. “That ball gets by (Blackmon), there’s a chance, I felt strongly, that we tie the game and have a man on second base.”

THE GOOD

– An out into the bottom of the fifth, Pollock was called out at second base on a stolen base attempt, but a replay review by the umpires overturned the initial call, giving him his 100th career stolen base. It proved key, as Marte again came through with two outs, giving Arizona a 6-5 lead by tripling to left field.

– Marte set a career high with four RBI.

– Pollock had a career-high five hits, tying a D-backs’ single game record for the 23rd time. He’s recorded at least four hits seven times in his career. It was the first time he had at least four hits in an outing since April 17, 2017, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

– A wild pitch by Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino allowed David Peralta, who had doubled, to find home plate two outs into the eighth, pulling Arizona within 11-9.

– Lamb reached first an infield chopper and error on the throw to first, and Marte followed with a single and stolen base. Nick Ahmed popped out, and Alex Avila’s sac-fly to center scored Lamb, making it 11-10, and put Marte at third with Jon Jay pinch-hitting in the nine-hole.

THE BAD

– D-backs first baseman Paul Goldschmidt struck out three times, struggling to see balls in the strike zone. He also walked once.

– Arenado caught a hung curveball to deep left field on Ray’s ninth pitch of the game for a two-run shot, putting the Rockies ahead 2-0 in the first inning. Peralta didn’t move an inch after watching the ball off Arenado’s bat on what was measured as a 429-foot dinger.

– Marquez blooped an RBI single into shallow right field to score Ian Desmond from third, a run that cut the D-backs’ lead to 5-3 in the top of the fourth.

– Arenado caught Ray again in the fifth inning, launching a fastball the opposite direction of his first home run to tie the game at five runs apiece.

HE SAID IT

“I didn’t think twice about removing him from the game,” Lovullo said when asked if he considered pulling Bradley before the reliever allowed the grand slam. “Like I said: It’s Archie, he’s been lights out. He’s been our guy.”

NOTED

– After reviewing data of hits at Chase Field in the first half of the year, Lovullo said that there was a measurable drop in exit velocity — less than half a mile per hour — and that fly-ball home runs were reduced.

“The 94-96 mile per hour exit velocity home runs are no longer a part of what’s going on here, no doubt about it,” he said before Colorado hit three home runs on Friday. “The ball to the corners ,the gaps, the lines, seems to be fairly similar.”

– Lovullo said starter Clay Buchholz felt great after throwing 67 pitches in 6.0 innings of one-run ball for Single-A Visalia on Thursday night. On the 10-day disabled list due to an oblique injury, Buchholz could be the fifth pitcher to start out of the break on Tuesday, though Lovullo said nothing was set in stone.

UP NEXT

Arizona right-hander Zack Godley (4.61 ERA, 11-6) takes the mound opposite Colorado lefty Kyle Freeland (3.11 ERA, 8-6) in the second game of the three-games series.

First pitch is at 5:10 p.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.

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