By the end of the sixth inning, Arizona had built a comfortably excessive 12-2 lead at Coors Field. Then Colorado scored six runs in the seventh and eighth, and suddenly the Diamondbacks were protecting a margin that had become merely useful.
Arizona held on Thursday afternoon for a 12-8 victory over the Rockies because its offense kept adding to the early six-run burst—and because Kevin Ginkel delivered the clean ninth that Dennis Santana and Taylor Clarke had made necessary. The Diamondbacks gave their Phoenix-area followers plenty of offense to admire, then an uncomfortable amount of late pitching to worry about.
Colorado scored in the fourth and sixth innings, but Arizona continued extending its lead. The Diamondbacks led 6-0 after the first, 8-0 after the second, 10-1 after the fourth, 11-1 after the fifth and 12-2 after the sixth. Those middle-inning additions were the difference between a rout and a nervous finish.
The first inning was only the beginning
Arizona’s opening barrage began with traffic rather than immediate fireworks. Lars Nootbaar singled, Ketel Marte walked and Gabriel Moreno followed with a three-run homer. Geraldo Perdomo then tripled, Pavin Smith singled him home and Nolan Arenado launched a two-run homer. Five hits produced six runs.
There was even a little mess tucked inside the explosion. Corbin Carroll walked after Arenado’s homer, but James McCann grounded into a double play and Tim Tawa followed with a flyout. Arizona did not turn every opportunity into damage. It simply did enough damage before the inning ended.
The important part came afterward. Marte doubled home Nootbaar in the second, and Perdomo’s single scored Marte. In the fourth, Perdomo walked and Smith doubled him home; after a pitching change, McCann singled Smith in.
Arenado added an RBI single in the fifth, and McCann’s solo homer in the sixth made it 12-1. Kyle Karros answered in the bottom half with a solo homer, producing the 12-2 score that Colorado would later attack.
Arizona finished with 18 hits, scoring in five innings. Nootbaar, Arenado and Perdomo each had three hits, while Smith and McCann had two apiece. Arenado drove in three runs, Moreno drove in three and Smith drove in two. The value of that production was not theoretical. When Colorado began stacking hits late, the Diamondbacks already had several layers of support on the scoreboard.
Eduardo Rodríguez supplied the first layer from the mound. He worked six innings, allowed two runs, struck out three and walked none. Colorado collected nine hits against him, so this was not a shutdown performance, but he repeatedly limited the damage.
