Colorado Rockies 2024: CO at AZ

FINALLY! The 2024 MLB season is underway. The Colorado Rockies are coming off their worst season in franchise history (if you need a recap, click here). They start their season off just about 20 miles SW of their Spring Training home in Scottsdale going against the reigning National League Champions Arizona Diamondbacks. While Arizona made some moves in the off season to bolster their already incredibly talented roster, the Rockies made little adjustment-notably signing star shortstop Eziquiel Tovar to massive 7-year, $63.5 million contract. The question is, will this be the year they can turn it around or are we in for yet another disappointing season?

Game 1: Arizona beats Colorado 16-1
Starting Pitchers: CO: Kyle Freeland AZ: Zac Gallen

Starting off the season, we see the face of the Rockies, Charlie Blackmon back in the lead off spot for the Rockies- where he has had monumental success in the past. He begins the season facing off against arguably one of the best right handers in the game Zac Gallen. Gallen, who is looking to improve upon an insane 2023 season where he finished 17-9 with. 3.47 ERA came out with his best stuff.

He saw only three batters in the first inning, Blackmon, Bryant and Jones. And all of them were sent back to the dug out. Going up against Gallen, Colorado’s very own Kyle Freeland. Freeland, unlike Gallen is coming off one of his worst seasons since 2019. For 2023, he went 6-14 with an ERA of 5.03. To say that he has something to prove, would be on par for the team as a whole. He would not come out of his first inning of work as lucky as Gallen either. Ketel Marte was up for the Arizona regiment first and he shot the second pitch he saw up the middle to CF Brenton Doyle for a single. The 2023 Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll would be up next and while he grounded out to Kyle, he advanced Amrte to second-putting him in scoring position. But who needs scoring position when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. who we talked about quite a lot in our post season coverage last year, absolutely demolishes the second ball he sees into the stands in left field? 2-0 Arizona. Luckily for the Rockies, hurt would be short lived when Christian Walker struck out and Gabriel Moreno grounded out. Personally, I feel like the second inning was misleading. It gave us hope that this was going to be a close/good game. The Rockies got off to a quick start in the top of the second inning with a laser to RF Corbin Carroll. Which set up the Rockies first run of the season when Ryan McMahon laced a double of his own up the middle to CF Alek Thomas. 2-1. Third base would eventually be as far as Ryan would get as Diaz, Tovar and Montero would all get out. Bottom of the second would be Kyle’s best inning as a lead off single by Eugenio Suarez would be erased by an inning double play off the bat of Alek Thomas. To the third we go. Four batters were sent to the plate in the top of the third and here is a quick recap: Doyle- groundout, Blackmon- groundout, Bryant- hit by pitch, Jones- groundout. Now, to put it nicely, the bottom of the third is where everything went horribly horribly wrong. To keep it short and simple, here is how it went down:
Perdomo: Single
Marte: Single
Carroll: Walk
Gurriel Jr.: RBI Single (scores Perdomo) 3-1
Walker: RBI Double (scores Marte and Carroll) 5-1
Moreno: RBI Single (scores Gurriel Jr.) 6-1
Suarez: RBI Single (scores Walker) 7-1
Alexander: 1st out- fly out
Thomas: RBI Double (scores Moreno) 8-1
Pitching Change: Anthony Molina comes in to relieve Kyle Freeland- inheriting a runner on 3rd and 2nd
Perdomo: RBI Single (scores Suarez) 9-1
Marte: RBI Single (Scores Thomas) 10-1
Carroll: Walk
Gurriel Jr.: RBI Single (scores Perdomo and Marte) 12-1
Walker: Single
Moreno: RBI Double (scores Carroll and Gurriel Jr.) 14-1
Suarez: Sac Fly (scores Walker) 15-1
Alexander: RBI Single (scores Moreno) 16-1
Pitching Change: Jalen Beeks comes in to relieve Anthony Molina
Thomas: 3rd out- ground out

To sum it up, the entire Diamondbacks line up batted twice and scored 14 runs. Kyle Freeland left the inning with an ERA north of 30 and Rockies fans feeling that this is going to be a long season. The only saving grace was that the hemorrhaging stopped there. Neither team would score again for the rest of the game but it definitely set the tone that this season is going to be a very long and very hard one if the Rockies are unable to make necessary adjustments- and make them quickly.

Game 2: Arizona beats Colorado 7-3
Starting Pitchers: CO: Cal Quantrill AZ: Merrill Kelly
New day, fresh start. Right? After the absolute slaughter that was the first game of the season, the Colorado Rockies come into the second game of the season hoping to rebound and show that it was just a one time fluke. To do this, they called on new member to the rotation, right hander Cal Quantrill who is coming off a lack luster 2023 season with the Guardians. Going 4-7 with a 5.24 ERA. He will be going up against yet another Ace is the DBacks rotation in veteran right hander Merill Kelly who is coming off an incredible 2023- going 12-8 with an ERA of 3.29 and was an integral part of Arizona’s 2023 World Series run.

We start the game off again with Charlie Blackmon leading off for the Rockies. He would end up lining out in a great snag by 2B Ketel Marte. Bryant followed him up and his struggles continued as he struck out in his 3rd at bat of the season. Nolan Jones was the third batter Kelly faced and he crushed a ball up the middle into center field for a double. In the end though, it wouldn’t do any damage as Brendan Rodgers would strike out swinging. Arizona’s first inning would be far more productive as the incredibly hot Lourdes Gurriel Jr., with two outs hammered an 88 mph cutter 385 feet into the left field stands. 1-0 Arizona. Christian Walker also wanted to get in on the action and took the 8th pitch of his at bat 411 feet to straight away center field. 2-0 Arizona. The second inning seems to be when the Rockies can get any sort of traction at the moment. With one out in the top of the second, Elias Diaz got in on the action and delivered his own 411 foot homer to left center off an 82 mph curveball to put the Rockies on the board 2-1. Tovar followed up with his own single but was subsequently picked off on a play that was challenged by Arizona after he was originally called safe. Montero came up next and flew out to right field to end the top of the second. The bottom went much better for the Rockies as Quantrill only saw four batters. Top of the third, three Rockies went up to the plate, three Rockies went back to the dug out. Bottom of the third, looked a lot like the bottom of the first. Marte started it off with a single and then quickly followed it up with stealing second base. Gurriel Jr,. and Walker flew out- giving hope it would be another quick inning. Joc Pederson had other ideas. On a very high chopper to SS Ezequiel Tovar, he was able to not only get a single out of it but Ketel Marte came in to score another run 3-1. Wouldn’t matter though- Gabriel Moreno would end the inning for the Diamondbacks.

The fourth inning was another three up, three down for the Rockies with two strike outs and a groundout. The bottom of the fourth was the same for Arizona with a popout, a groundout and lineout- that was an absolute clinic by LF Nolan Jones on how to hustle for an out.

Fifth inning- just like the fourth was nothing special. Rockies saw another three up three down inning with two flyouts and a popout. Arizona- who is not holding back very early in the season tried to extend their lead with a single to start by Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte but, it would lead to nothing after Carroll was caught stealing third base and then Gurriel Jr. and Walker grounded out. Top of the sixth inning was like a record on repeat- three up, three down. Now, just like the first game, this game has an inning when everything went sideways- like the score. We start off with Joc Pederson singles. Gabriel Moreno then walked. At this time, Bud Black made the choice to bring in Jake Bird to replace Cal Quantrill. Personally, looking back at this choice, unsure that it was the right one. One the next batter, Eugenio Suarez singled, scoring Pederson. 4-1. And to dig it in that much more, Alek Thomas got in on the home run action in the very next at bat off a 95 mph sinker that went 399 feet over the right field wall. 7-1. Fortunately for Colorado, their hurt would end there. Everything was relatively quiet on both sides of the ball until the top of the 8th inning when Chuck Nazty- who by the way is 37 years old and is going into his 13th season with the Rockies- legged out a TRIPLE that scored Brenton Doyle. 7-2. A pitching change occurred after this and on the first pitch, Charlie would score as the ball went past catcher Gabriel Moreno. 7-3.

Unfortunately, the rally would not go any farther and the Rockies fell to the Diamondbacks again, beginning their season 0-2.

Game 3: Colorado beats Arizona 9-4
Starting Pitchers: CO: Austin Gomber AZ: Tommy Henry
Oooof. To say that the first two games of the season have been fun would be a gross overstatement. If anything, it highlights just how far the Rockies have fallen since their last winning season in 2018. The rotation is looking rough with early struggles in command and placement. The offense is also lacking in pop and aggressiveness. The hope is that they can figure out something that will turn this train around quickly and they are going to call on Austin Gomber to do it today. Aquired in the lopsided Arenado trade from St. Louis in 2021, his 2023 was one of the better of the Rockies starters. He went 9-9 with a 5.50 ERA. He will be asked to go up against left hander Tommy Henry whose second season in the big leagues saw him go 5-4 with a 4.15 ERA.

The first inning went pretty much the exact same as the first two games. The Rockies went three up, three down with a line out from Charlie and two strikeouts from Bryant and Jones. Arizona again got out to an early lead from none other than the scortching hot Lourdes Gurriel Jr. whose double to RF scored Ketel Marte. 1-0 Arizona. With runners on second and third, Gabriel Moreno hit an RBI groundout to SS Ezequiel Tovar scoring Corbin Carroll in the process. 2-0. Gomber’s hard time would end there though, ending the inning by striking out Blaze Alexander.
Now the second inning. The first two at bats looked like par for the course at this point. Two ground outs. But Elias Diaz and Ezequiel Tovar had different ideas. Diaz started it off with a single to left field. Which set Tovar up nicely to launch a 90mph fast ball 402 feet to center field- tying the game for the first time in the series. 2-2. Bottom of the second inning saw three of the Diamondbacks best bats coming to the plate and all three of them were sent back to the dugout on a strikeout and two groundouts to third baseman Ryan McMahon. TO THE THIRD!
To kick off the third inning, Charlie Blackmon is proving that even after 13 seasons, he is one of the greatest in the Rockies organization. He gets it going with a single to left field before snagging his first stolen base of the season. Ultimately though, it wouldn’t do much good, the next three batters went down in order just like AZ did with a strikeout and two groundouts. Bottom of the third was really just as interesting- or lacking in interest- as the top was. Corbin Carroll was the first DBack to reach and like Charlie, stole 2nd. Again, nothing would come of it when Gabriel Moreno grounded into a double play catching Christian Walker at second and him at first.
The fourth inning saw the Arizona regiment take the lead back off the bat of Eugenio Suarez launching a four-seam fastball 402 feet into center field. 3-2. Honestly, I wanted to get to the top of the fifth inning because that is where the magic happened. Here we go:
Elehuris Montero: Walk
Brenton Doyle: Single
Charlie Blackmon: Double- Montero and Doyle score- 4-3
Kris Bryant: Walk
Nolan Jones: Triple- Blackmon and Bryant score- 6-3
Brendan Rodgers: Strikeout
Ryan McMahon: Sac fly- Jones scores- 7-3
Elias Diaz: Lineout
Arizona would get one of those runs back off the bat of none other than Lourdes Gurriel Jr. who cranked out his third dinger of the season in as many games. 7-4.
To keep this short and sweet, nothing exciting happened for either team in the sixth and seventh inning. Players came to the plate while other players threw the ball in their general direction and they tried to hit it not at the players assigned to play on the field.
Cool. Now that we have that out of the way, the top of the eighth inning. Montero again found himself waling to first base for the THIRD time tonight- which he would later confirm has never happened in his career. Brenton Doyle wanted to get his stats up a bit after the first two games and launched a rocket of a heavily misplaced sinker (don’t think they are supposed to end up high and inside on the strikezone) 383 feet to the left field seats. This extended the Rockies lead comfortably at this point. 9-4. Arizona was unable to recover from the final nail in their coffin. The Rockies win their first game of the season- good to know we won’t go 0-162.

Game 4: Arizona beats Colorado
Starting Pitchers: CO: Ryan Feltner AZ: Tommy Pfaadt
Maaaaaaan. I guess we could thank the Rockies for setting our expectations early. At least we can safely say we most likely won’t be disappointed in a poor performance from the team. Don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly believe that we have an incredibly talented field of players this season. But when you put up three defensive errors that all resulted in runs being scored, it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. A positive from this game though is Ryan Feltner. A kid who took a ball off the head last year and was out with a skull fracture because of it, came in and performed well. He did not deserve the lack of support his defense gave him.

The first inning of this game seemed to continue the trend we’ve been seeing in this series, The Rockies wen’t down in order with a fly out and two strike outs. The bottom of the third was far more fruitful for the Diamondbacks. To start it off, Corbin Carroll drew a walk after battling in a 9-pitch at bat. During Ketel Marte’s at bat, Carroll stole second but was able to advance to third on a rare throwing error from veteran catcher Jacob Stallings. This would come back to bite the Rockies when the scorching hot Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled up the middle. 1-0. Gurriel Jr. then stole second base in the next at bat- showing just how aggressive Arizona plans to be on the base paths tonight. The stolen base didn’t mean a whole lot in the end though- in the next at bat, Christian Walker launched a nuke 409 feet to center field. 3-0. Thankfully, the bleeding stopped here with a strike out followed by a double play.
The second, third and fourth innings were relatively quiet with no more than four batters being seen by either team. That being said, the third inning did end in a fantastic pick off of Christian Walker while trying to steal second base. The fifth inning was the most exciting by far. The Rockies sent of seven batters to face Tommy Pfaadt. Michael Toglia started the inning off strong with-got hit by a pitch. He would eventually come around to score the Rockies’ only run off a single from catcher Jacob Stallings. 3-1. Unfortunately, that run would mean very little as the Diamondbacks came up. Here’s out it went down:
Tucker Barnahrt: Walk
Geraldo Perdomo: Strike out- Tucker Barnhart steals second
Corbin Carroll: Pop out
Ketel Marte: Reaches on a fielding error by Nolan Jones, Barnhart scores 4-1
Lourdes Gurriel Jr: Doubles- Marte scores 5-1
Christian Walker: Ground out
I will preface that no one else scores the rest of the game but there are a few more things to highlight. In total, the Rockies totaled three errors and despite outhitting Arizona 8-5, still managed a pretty large loss. Their base running was nowhere near as bold or offensive as Arizona’s either. This series, if anything, has shown plenty of weaknesses in this team and they have a lot to work on to prove that they are moving in the right direction this season.

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