Charlie Blackmon tripled and homered on Monday night, and the Colorado Rockies defeated Arizona 7-5 to deny Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo his 500th career victory. Ryan McMahon made up for a costly error with three hits.
Since Lovullo defeated the New York Yankees on April 2 for his 499th victory, Arizona has suffered five consecutive losses. In his seventh season, Lovullo has managed the team longer than any other manager in franchise history.
“I’m proud of these guys because they’re fighting and giving it their all,” Lovullo remarked. “Things aren’t going our way right now, but they will eventually get better for us. We will all enjoy seeing the storm when it arrives because it is approaching and looming above us.
Peter Lambert (2-0) earned the victory with two innings of relief pitching after Colorado starter Kyle Freeland toiled through five innings. The Diamondbacks forced a run against Nick Mears, but Jake Bird retired Eugenio Suarez with a bases-loaded fly to deep right to end the game and earn his first save.
Suarez remarked, “I was prepared to hit the ball because I knew they were going to attack me in that circumstance.” “I just want to get the ball in play; I’m not trying to be the hero.”
Colorado took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a triple by Blackmon and an RBI single by Ezequiel Tovar. Since last September 26 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, it was the first time in 17 games that the Rockies had scored first.
In the fourth, the Diamondbacks scored four runs, two of which came from McMahon’s mistake at third with two outs. Freeland, who entered the game having pitched only three and a half innings, capped the inning off with a comebacker that he fielded and a fastball that he hit to Elehuris Montero at first to record the last out.
Freeland was hitless through the fifth inning despite giving up a single. In exchange for giving up two earned runs, he reduced his ERA from 27.00 to 16.03.
Regarding getting through the fifth, Freeland noted, “That was big because it could have come unraveled pretty quickly with the momentum they had in the fourth inning.”
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