D-backs struggle to cash in baserunners as crucial road trip looms

PHOENIX -- This was a tough one to process and to make sense of for the Diamondbacks.

Wednesday afternoon they drew 10 walks and collected 11 hits against a Rockies pitching staff that constantly seemed on the verge of cracking.

"If you were to tell me we're going to have 21 baserunners before the game, I would tell you that we're going to score 10 runs at least," Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said.

But that's not what happened as Arizona struggled to come up with the big hit and dropped the rubber game against the Rockies, 6-4, at Chase Field.

Losing two of three to the Rockies at home was not anything the Diamondbacks expected. Especially since they were coming off a series win over the Dodgers and reached a season-high eight games above .500 on Sunday.

Maybe it was a letdown after the emotion of the hard-fought Dodgers series or maybe it is just the inexplicable nature of baseball.

"That's the part of it that is a little bit difficult to understand," Lovullo said. "You know, as the leader of this team and the manager of this team, I have to come up with answers for that. It's an emotional game. It's a real thing. We've got to block everything out every single day and play our game. I don't care who's in the other dugout. There's no gimmies in this game. We gotta go out and continue to just hammer down for these last 40-plus games and be ourselves, work on us, take care of us and do what we do best."

There is heightened importance to these games as the Diamondbacks (64-58) are in the thick of the NL Wild Card race. After San Diego won its game, 4-3, in 11 innings against Milwaukee, the D-backs hold the third and final NL Wild Card spot, as they hold the tiebreaker over Philadelphia (which is also 64-58) by virtue of head-to-head record (2-1).

And the schedule gets a lot tougher. Following an off-day Thursday, the Diamondbacks will open a three-game series against the Braves in Atlanta before heading to Boston for three games.

"Tomorrow, I want the guys to recharge. Get away from the game for the day, and then come back out and give their absolute best effort on Friday against Chris Sale in Atlanta," Lovullo said.

Wednesday's game went sideways early for the Diamondbacks and starter Merrill Kelly.

After a one-two-three first inning, the first three Colorado batters reached, scoring once and then when he was one out from escaping further damage, Kelly allowed a three-run homer to Brett Sullivan.

In the fourth, Zac Veen hit a two-run homer and the Rockies had a 6-1 lead.

"I think any series loss right now is frustrating with what we're trying to do," Kelly said. "I think that's probably one of the most frustrating parts about today. Everybody's fighting hard to do their job, and I feel like I didn't hold up my end. I just didn't do my job today. The boys did a good job of fighting there at the end, putting together some good at bats, scoring some runs, and I just feel like I didn't help them today."

Kelly's velocity was down a bit from his last outing, but he insisted that he physically felt good and it was just one of those days when the ball wasn't coming out like he wanted.

The Diamondbacks did a good job of getting runners on base, but coming up with hits with runners in scoring position, well, that was a different story.

Arizona was just 3-for-12 in those situations and stranded 15 runners, leaving everyone wearing Sedona Red feeling frustrated.

On the bright side for the Diamondbacks, outfielder Corbin Carroll continued to swing the bat better, homering for the second straight day.

The solo shot in the eighth was the 100th of his young career. He joined Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio as the only MLB players to record 100-plus homers and 50-plus triples before their 610th career game.

"I feel like anytime you can do something where your name's on a list with people like that, it's pretty cool," Carroll said.