The Arizona Diamondbacks wrapped up their series with the Colorado Rockies on Monday night, looking for the four game sweep and trying to keep their playoff hopes alive. It would have been the first sweep the Diamondbacks would record against Colorado since 2002, but the Rockies managed to hold them off for one game.
With Trevor Cahill on the mound, the Diamondbacks have had trouble in the first innings of games this season. Such was the case again on Monday night when Cahill took a ground ball and attempted to throw it to second base in an attempt to turn a double play. Unfortunately, he missed the throw to shortstop John McDonald by a mile, causing the ball to roll into centerfield and allowing Charlie Blackmon to advance to third. From there, Tyler Colvin hit a base hit, scoring Blackmon. The inning ended, ironically, on a terrific double play ball turned by McDonald.
With the score sitting at 1-0, Arizona left two men on base in the second inning, including Miguel Montero on third base. Luckily for the Diamondbacks, Jason Kubel changed all of that with one swing of his bat in the fourth. Tyler Chatwood had been pitching a gem of a game until Kubel's two-run bomb to right field, his 30th of the year. It was all set up after Chatwood walked Paul Goldschmidt with two outs in the inning.
As good as the top of the fourth inning was, the bottom was equally as bad for Arizona. In what seemed like a matter of seconds, Cahill managed to load the bases for the Rockies -- and they had no outs. A groundout from Andrew Brown forced a runner home, but got the runner out at second base. DJ LeMahieu's single to right field untied the score, giving the Rockies a 3-2 advantage. Cahill would then record yet another groundout to get out of the inning.
After getting out of another jam in the fifth, the Diamondbacks were in a need for an offensive spark. Down 3-2, they had only three hits in the game entering the eighth inning. The bullpen crew of Josh Outman, Guillermo Moscoso and Rafael Betancourt would keep Arizona from scoring again, as the Diamondbacks were only able to record two more hits for the rest of the game.
Andrew Brown capped it all off with a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth, making the score 4-2. Oddly enough, it had taken 368 at-bats against Brad Ziegler for a right-handed batter to hit a home run. It was his first homer allowed since June 30, 2010, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.
With another loss in the books, the chances that the Diamondbacks make the postseason are decreasing by the day. A Cardinals victory tonight places the D-Backs 5.5 games out of a Wild Card position and a longshot to make the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
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