Nolan Arenado has spent September collecting home runs and reaching base. Thursday at Coors Field, both habits showed up in the first inning of a 12-8 Diamondbacks win that kept Arizona's thin postseason hopes alive.
The Associated Press reported that Arenado homered in a six-run first and finished with three hits as Arizona posted a season-high 18 hits against the Colorado Rockies. Per the CBS Sports box, Arenado went 3-for-5 with a run, three RBI and his 29th home run. The AP added that he has eight homers in September and has reached safely in 18 straight games.
Six-run first, Arenado's two-run piece
Arenado's September has been built on exactly this kind of early damage. Eight homers in the month and an 18-game on-base streak, per the AP, turn a single Coors Field afternoon into part of a longer stretch rather than an isolated power night.
The first-inning homer with Smith aboard followed Moreno's three-run shot in the same frame - two veteran middle-of-the-order swings that turned the Rockies' home finale into a chase from the first pitch of the second inning onward.
Arizona's 18 hits were a season high. Arenado's three were woven through the first, second and fifth, keeping the third-base spot productive long after the six-run outburst.
Lars Nootbaar singled and Ketel Marte walked to open the game. Gabriel Moreno's three-run homer - his 16th - made it 3-0. Geraldo Perdomo tripled and scored on Pavin Smith's single. Arenado then drove a two-run homer to left, his 29th, for a 6-0 cushion before the Rockies recorded three outs.
Arenado was not done. He singled in the second, struck out in the fourth, and singled again in the fifth to drive in Perdomo for Arizona's 11th run. Three hits, three RBI, and a homer inside a lineup that kept stacking throughout the afternoon.
