PHOENIX -- One inning into Sunday's 3-2 loss to the Rockies, it looked like it was going to be a good afternoon for the D-backs.

Center fielder Alek Thomas looked like Spider-Man when he caught leadoff hitter Connor Joe's deep drive to open the game. The second out came when right fielder Daulton Varsho covered a lot of ground and made a sliding grab to retire Brendan Rodgers. (Not to be left out, left fielder David Peralta made a leaping catch at the wall the following inning.)

Then in the bottom of the first, Ketel Marte hit a two-out solo homer to give Arizona a 1-0 lead.

"When you talk about being ready to play day games, I like early statements," D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "I like our guys showing the fans, the opposing team, themselves, their teammates that they're ready to play. And we had two tremendous catches in the top of the first inning that I felt like set up our day pretty well."

Baseball, though, continually tests teams, and a good start is no guarantee of a strong finish.

"Things backed up on us in the back half of this game, and you can see what happens at this level," Lovullo said. "This is the big leagues, and when you give a team an extra out or two, they're going to make you pay for it a lot of times. And that's what happened to us today."

That it was Josh Rojas who made the key miscue was the biggest surprise, because the third baseman has played solid defense this year and had energized the team, both at the plate and in the field, during this homestand.

With one out and a Colorado runner on first base in the seventh, and Arizona holding a 2-0 lead, Yonathan Daza hit a grounder to Rojas. He fielded it cleanly, but his rushed throw to second skipped by Sergio Alcántara and into right field.

It hurt even more when the Rockies went on to score three unearned runs in the inning and never surrender their 3-2 lead.

"[Rojas] has been doing a great job at third, busting his butt," Lovullo said. "But when you don't fundamentally pick up the baseball and do it the way you're supposed to, it can lead to the exact situation that happened. He's going to tighten it up and keep pounding and keep working. That's all we can do."

Rojas came into the game leading MLB with a .483 batting average since the start of July, and he put the error behind him enough to collect his second hit of the game in the eighth and make a nice catch in the ninth.

But none of that eased the pain Rojas felt after the game.

"It was hit to my backhand, I knew Daza had good speed and I just tried to rush it," Rojas said of the errant throw. "Looking back on video, I think we're only getting one no matter what. So if I could do it all over again, I would just shuffle my feet, make a good throw and get one [out] at second. But just trying to catch it and throw in one motion, didn't move my feet and left it short. It cost us three runs. That one hurts."