The Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies engaged in another slugfest on Friday night, but it was the visiting Snakes who would do the most damage as their 21 total hits were enough to lift them over the Rox.
Snakebit
Austin Gomber has seen limited success against the Diamondbacks in his career, and that stayed true on Friday.
Arizona got started early when Ketel Marte took the fourth pitch of the game out to center field for a double. Brenton Doyle made a solid attempt at a highlight reel snag, but the ball was too far above him. Marte moved to third on Geraldo Perdomo’s ground out and scored on Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s single, putting the visitors up 1-0.
They kept the pressure on in the second with a leadoff knock from #oldfriend Randal Grichuk. Gomber managed to secure the next two outs, but José Herrera’s fourth double of the season doubled (ha) his team’s lead.
Gomber managed to escape a two-on, one-out situation in the third with a timely double play, so maybe he could turn the corner and start sitting the D-Backs down.
Fireworks in the fourth
Okay, try and keep up here.
As it turns out, Arizona was just heating up. Grichuk led off the top of the fourth with a triple and Tim Tawa (great name) walked to put two on for Ildemaro Vargas, who singled to bring home the third Diamondbacks run. Two batters later, Ketel Marte homered for the 13th time this season to plate three more, bringing the score to 6-1 Snakes. It was looking rough.
However, the Rockies fought back.
After being held in check by Zac Gallen through the first three frames, they found life in the fourth when Ryan McMahon led off with his 12th round-tripper of the season.
After recording an out, Gallen allowed a double to the surging Michael Toglia and then a home run to the scorching-hot Mickey Moniak. That blast, Money-ak’s tenth of 2025, brought the Rockies within two runs at 6-4.
Colorado then collected four straight two-out knocks, batting around and plating three runs before the exciting inning finally ended. At its conclusion, the Rockies led with a taco’s-earning seven runs to Diamondbacks’ six. Talk about a hot comeback!
Man, the ball was flying, huh? So much so, in fact, that both starters had nights to forget. Zac Gallen allowed seven runs in five innings on ten hits and a walk against five strikeouts, while Austin Gomber went 4 2⁄3 frames and allowed nine earned runs on 12 hits, a walk, and no strikeouts. Yeesh.
Diamondbacks keep it going
Unfortunately, the lead was short-lived. A change of pitcher did little to quiet Arizona’s offense, as Ryan Rolison and Juan Mejia both encountered similar resistance.
Both allowed two more runs each, allowing the visitors to regain the upper hand at 13-7.
The Rockies pitching staff found themselves totally unable to stop the Diamondbacks’ advance. Even Anthony Molina allowed a run in his two innings of work (that being in the top of an eighth that saw three more opposing hits score a 14th run of the game).
The game finally ended, but not before Arizona tallied 21 hits, nine of them for extra bases. They struck out only one time. Four Snakes recorded three-hit games, and Eugenio Suárez led the way with four.
Well, there’s always tomorrow.
Up Next
Hopefully tomorrow’s starters have better luck. Arizona’s Merrill Kelly (6-3, 3.41 ERA) will match up against Carson Palmquist (0-4, 7.76 ERA) in Saturday evening’s affair.
That game begins at 7:10pm MDT. See you then!