Rockies’ rally halts D-Backs’ win streak
Lovullo backs Greinke after starter allows winning run to Colorado late
DENVER – For more than 2 1⁄2 months, Torey Lovullo has regularly tested the bounds of his starting pitchers’ endurance, almost always to great effect. He has asked them for one more out or one more inning, even when it has appeared they might not have it in them, and they have managed to come through nearly every time.
On Tuesday night at Coors Field, he asked his ace for one more inning, and Zack Greinke could not deliver. With one out in the eighth, Greinke allowed three consecutive hits, the dagger coming in the form of Nolan Arenado’s go-ahead, two-run triple, and the Colorado Rockies came away with a 4-3 victory, becoming the first team in 11 days to hand a loss to the Diamondbacks.
Greinke said later he felt strong. Lovullo said he would do it all over again.
“There was no doubt in my mind he deserved to go back out in the eighth inning,” Lovullo said. “I know it’s easy to sit here and say the way the outcome
of the game turned out that we probably could have gone to the bullpen. But my mindset was he threw the ball well enough he deserved to give up his own run.”
For all but four outs in the entire game, the Diamondbacks trailed. And yet it still felt like, one way or another, they were going come away with their eight consecutive win, particularly after what transpired in the top of the eighth.
Behind 2-1, David Peralta led off the inning with a laser down the right-field line, a ball that narrowly stayed inside the foul pole for a game-tying, solo homer. It took one more pitch for the Diamondbacks to take their first lead. Paul Goldschmidt followed with a home run of his own to make it 3-2.
That set the stage for Lovullo’s decision. Greinke had retired the previous 10 batters he had faced, mowing through the Rockies’ lineup a third time without a single hard-hit ball. His pitch count was just 85. In Lovullo’s mind, the decision was easy.
“I felt as good as I can at that moment,” Greinke said. “I felt really good.”
But with one out, the Rockies collected a pair of well-placed singles to bring Arenado, their best hitter, to the plate. Still, Lovullo remained in the visitors’ dugout.
“Zack deserved it,” Lovullo said. “He was in total control of that game. I know there were a couple of hits that got away from him, but I thought he could walk the ball around the zone and make pitches to Arenado.
“Obviously, Arenado counterpunched us very well.”
Arenado got a 1-0 slider and mashed it to right field, where Peralta drifted back before running out of room. The ball hit off the scoreboard, caromed off Peralta and bounced away, allowing both Charlie Blackmon and D.J. LeMahieu to score.
All three Rockies batters who came through with hits in the eighth were facing Greinke for the fourth time in the game, a scenario that tends to put the pitcher at a disadvantage. Greinke was asked if he thought that might have played a part in what happened.
“The numbers say it’s usually harder to do,” Greinke said.
The long leash Lovullo has given his starters has been a welcome sight in the eyes of the pitchers themselves, who last year complained about being lifted from games too quickly. And though the Diamondbacks have dominant late-game options in the bullpen, there have been remarkably few times when sticking with the starter has bit Lovullo the way it did Tuesday.
Lovullo did not downplay the significance of the decision, but he also wasn’t second-guessing himself.
“It didn’t work out,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, and I know that the decision I made directly impacted the outcome in this game. But I still believe in Zack Greinke.”