Diamondbacks strand bases loaded late in loss to Rockies, drop 5th straight

DENVER (AP) — Ryan McMahon atoned for a costly error with three hits, Charlie Blackmon homered and tripled, and the Colorado Rockies beat Arizona 7-5 on Monday night to deny Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo his 500th career win.

Arizona has dropped five in a row since Lovullo got his 499th victory April 2 against the New York Yankees.

“These guys are fighting and doing all they can, and I’m proud of them,” Lovullo said. “Things aren’t going our way but they will; it’s going to turn around for us at some point. The storm is coming, the storm is hovering and when it comes it’s going to be fun for all of us to watch.”

Colorado starter Kyle Freeland grinded through five innings for his longest outing of the season. Jake Bird retired Eugenio Suarez with a bases-loaded fly to right to end the game and earn his first save after the Diamondbacks pushed across a run against Nick Mears.

“I know they’re going to attack me in that situation and I was ready to hit the ball,” Suarez said. “I’m not trying to be the hero, just to put the ball in play.”

D-backs ace Zac Gallen finished with 5.0 innings, three earned runs on eight hits and 10 strikeouts.

Blackmon led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored on Ezequiel Tovar’s RBI single against Gallen, giving Colorado a 1-0 lead. It was the first time in 17 games the Rockies scored first, dating back to Sept. 26, 2023, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Diamondbacks scored four times in the fourth, two on a two-out error at third by McMahon. Freeland, whose deepest outing this season coming in was 3.1 innings, punctuated the end of the inning by fielding a comebacker and throwing a fastball to Elehuris Montero at first for the final out.

Freeland gave up four runs — two earned — and lowered his ERA from 27.00 to 16.03.

“That was big because it could have come unraveled pretty quickly with the momentum they had in the fourth inning,” Freeland said of getting through the fifth.

McMahon made up for the miscue by leading off the bottom of the inning with a single, one of four straight hits by Colorado that made it 4-3. Gallen got the next three batters to escape with the lead, but Colorado denied him a win with a rally in the sixth off reliever Scott McGough (0-3).

Montero’s sacrifice fly tied it and Joe Mantiply came on after Blackmon’s walk loaded the bases. McMahon hit an infield single and Elias Diaz walked to bring home another run.

The Diamondbacks will send RHP Merrill Kelly (1-0, 1.38 ERA) to the mound against Colorado RHP Cal Quantrill (0-1, 9.00) in a rematch of Arizona’s 7-3 win on March 29.

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