Diamondbacks bullpen falters again in walk-off loss to Rockies
Sep 16, 2024, 8:29 PM
Hunter Goodman #15 of the Colorado Rockies celebrates his seventh inning solo home run at Coors Field on September 16, 2024 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
(Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
The Arizona Diamondbacks’ bullpen continues to have issues, the latest of which was protecting a 2-1 lead in a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Monday.
Arizona had that advantage in the seventh inning when Kevin Ginkel gave up a solo homer to tie the game, Ginkel’s eighth earned run across 4.2 innings pitched in September.
The D-backs went with Ryan Thompson for the last out of the eighth to have him as the guy responsible for holding the door in the ninth. A leadoff single and intentional walk later, a broken bat grounder to second had the D-backs in a hurry to turn a double play. The forceout was applied at second but shortstop Geraldo Perdomo tossed a bad throw to first that went out of Christian Walker’s range and behind him to score the game-winning run.
Rockies walk it off on a Geraldo Perdomo throwing error! pic.twitter.com/qE0qjfWqTt
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 17, 2024
The D-backs had four at-bats with runners in scoring position, a slight stall-out for their offense that has been ultrareliable all year, and all three at-bats ended in meaningful results.
Arizona’s offense got started immediately with a Corbin Carroll triple setting up a two-RBI bomb via Ketel Marte that traveled 460 feet.
Three innings later, a Walker single and Pavin Smith base on balls put Arizona in a spot for some potential damage to begin the inning before Jake McCarthy lined into a double play.
The third at-bat with runners in scoring position came again three innings later. And once again with runners on first and second and nobody out, the D-backs hit into a double play. This put Gabriel Moreno up with two outs and a runner on third but he grounded out.
Merrill Kelly had his first outing since exiting a start with cramping that has been a problem for him at Chase Field. He didn’t run into many issues, giving up two hits and two walks for one earned run across six innings. One of his two hits was a solo homer, and both walks were in the bottom of the fifth inning but he avoided danger with one out in the only problem spot of his night.
Arizona was fortunate to see the Atlanta Braves lose on Monday, meaning it did not lose any ground on potentially slipping out of a playoff race. That gap remains at two games, with Atlanta holding the tiebreaker.
