Senzatela sizzles through seven
PHOENIX» The resilient Rockies are not fading away.
A threegame sweep by the Dodgers in Los Angeles landed a big punch to Rockies’ playoff hopes, but it didn’t knock them down, and certainly didn’t knock them out.
Behind another superb performance by one of their bright young starting pitchers — in this case, 23yearold righthander Antonio Senzatela — the Rockies beat the Diamondbacks 51 on Saturday night at Chase Field.
In one of the biggest games of this career, Senzatela pitched one of the best games of his career. Working quickly, confidently and with excellent command, he allowed one run on three hits over seven innings. He struck out four and walked none.
Although the Rockies notched their second consecutive clutch game here, they failed to gain ground in the chase for the National League’s second wild card. St. Louis beat San Francisco 54 on a walkoff home run in the 10th inning, keeping the Cardinals 1½ games ahead of Colorado. The Rockies remained 1½ games behind the Dodgers in the National League West. The Dodgers beat San Diego 72 in a late game on the West Coast.
Senzatela was perfect for 4M innings — 14 Dbacks up, 14 Dbacks down. Then A.J. Pollock messed with perfection, belting Senzatela’s hanging 77.3 mph curveball for a solo home run to left. Colorado’s lead was cut to 41.
Righthanders Adam Ottavino and Wade Davis pitched a perfect eighth and ninth, respectively, to finish off slumping Arizona, which has lost eight of its last 11 games to fall out of the playoff picture.
Arizona lefty Patrick Corbin entered Saturday’s game with a ster
ling record against the Rockies at Chase Field: 51 with a 2.81 ERA in nine career starts. But the Rockies, displaying patience at the plate, sent Corbin to the showers after just three innings. He walked four, including free passes to Nolan Arenado and Matt Holliday in the first inning, a sign of Corbin’s lack of command.
Still, the Rockies didn’t break Corbin until the fourth inning, when they sent nine batters to the plate and scored four times. Corbin hit Charlie Blackmon and then walked Arenado and Ian Desmond, setting up a twoout, basesloaded opportunity for catcher Chris Iannetta. He delivered a tworun single, followed up by RBI singles from David Dahl and rookie shortstop Garrett Hampson.
That was it for Corbin, who finished with four runs allowed on five hits in his shortest start of the season.
Iannetta entered the game in an ugly slump, having not delivered a hit since going 2for3 on Sept. 8 against the Dodgers. But he delivered a single in the second to break an 0for19 skid, and then came through with his big hit in the third.
He also drew a basesloaded walk in the ninth to drive in Colorado’s final run.
Blackmon (2for4) extended his hitting streak to 14 games, tying his career high.
The Rockies, who opened their final road trip of the season by losing five of their first six games, have a chance to complete a threegame sweep of the Diamondback on Sunday with lefthander Kyle Freeland on the mound.