Pennington pushes D-backs past Rox in walk-off
PHOENIX -- Cliff Pennington drove in the game-winning run with an RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the D-backs to a 4-3 win over the Rockies on Friday night at Chase Field.
"He's one of the veterans on this team," D-backs manager Chip Hale said. "When they get their chances to play they just seem to be in the right place at the right time."
Video: COL@ARI: Pennington discusses walk-off winner in 10th
Welington Castillo led off the 10th with an opposite-field double to right. After a Chris Owings single moved Castillo to third, Pennington, who previously tied the game with an RBI single in the sixth, drove him in with a long flyball to left off of Rockies reliever Yohan Flande, who took the loss. The Rockies tallied just two hits after the first inning, as the D-backs bullpen combined to throw four scoreless innings with Andrew Chafin earning the win.
Neither starter factored in the decision. D-backs starter Chase Anderson gave up three runs on three hits in six innings with five strikeouts. Rockies starter Kyle Kendrick also allowed three runs, giving up nine hits and striking out six in 5 2/3 innings.
"I like our team; I think we have a good team," Kendrick said of the Rockies, who fell to 2-6 with two games left in their road trip. "We haven't put it all together."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Got him while they could: Blackmon hit his ninth career first-inning, leadoff homer -- his third this year -- and Wilin Rosario added a two-run double with two out that same inning. But the Rockies managed just one additional hit off Anderson before he left after the sixth. More >
"I felt like we let Anderson settle in," said Rockies manager Walt Weiss, who was unhappy with the offense the previous two games. "We had the big first and didn't get much after that."
Video: COL@ARI: Rosario plates two runs on a double to left
Early response: After the Rockies scored a trio of runs in the top of the first, the D-backs answered right back with a pair of their own in the bottom half of the inning. David Peralta and Paul Goldschmidt hit back-to-back, one-out doubles. Goldschmidt later scored on a Jake Lamb triple to right to cut it to 3-2. It was the eighth time this season the D-backs had three extra-base hits in an inning, a season-high.
Video: COL@ARI: Lamb drills a run-scoring triple to right
Settling in: Anderson cruised after the first inning, retiring 14 in a row after Rosario's two-run double. The D-backs right-hander had four straight 1-2-3 innings, including needing just five pitches in the fifth. Troy Tulowitzki ended the run with a one-out single in the sixth, the only hit Anderson surrendered after the first.
"We were just about to get somebody up to get out of that inning," Hale said. "He just didn't seem like he had it. It's amazing how it happens with starters after they get through that first inning they're able to lock it down."
Video: COL@ARI: Anderson fans five over six frames
Living to fight another inning: The Rockies appeared in trouble in the bottom of the ninth, when A.J. Pollock put a perfect bunt past pitcher Scott Oberg to put two on with no outs. But after Peralta's fielder's choice and an intentional walk to Goldschmidt, Oberg fanned Yasmany Tomas, and DJ LeMahieu -- who couldn't make it to first in time to cover on the Pollock bunt -- made a sliding stop of Lamb's grounder to keep the score tied.
Video: COL@ARI: LeMahieu makes a diving stop to escape jam
Not the way it looked: With Pennington up for the eventual game-winning fly, television video showed Weiss and third-base coach and infield instructor Stu Cole holding up four fingers, followed by a point.
Some construed it as a call for an intentional walk to load the bases; however, Weiss said he wasn't asking for a walk because he wanted to avoid the top of the D-backs' order.
Weiss and Cole, it turned out, were merely positioning infielders. It didn't matter, however, when Pennington won the game with the fly ball.
QUOTABLE
"It's a tough pitch, a cutter and flared it in there. I said, 'Hey that won this organization a World Series right there.'" -- Hale, on Pennington's game-tying RBI single in the sixth
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Kendrick has given up 23 home runs this year, but allowed none on Friday night. It marked the fifth time in his 17 starts that he wasn't a longball victim. Kendrick read the D-backs' strategy after the first inning, then countered.
"In the first inning they were on the fastball, but I wanted to establish that early," Kendrick said. "I threw a lot of changeups after that -- made an adjustment."
REPLAY REVIEW
Rockies manager Walt Weiss challenged a play at second base in the fifth, and -- although fans watching the replay disagreed, and booed lustily -- Pollock was called out. Pollock had hit a blooper that he tried to hustle into a double. Rockies right fielder Brandon Barnes beat Pollock with his throw, but it appeared Pollock pulled back his left hand from LeMahieu's tag and grabbed the base with his right. However, instant replay overturned the call, showing that LeMahieu kept his glove on Pollock, who released the base with his right and and re-touched it with his left.
Video: COL@ARI: Pollock ruled out as call overturned in 5th
IF IT WEREN'T FOR BAD LUCK
With runners at first and second with no outs in the 10th, Rockies pinch-hitter Michael McKenry worked the count in his favor, then smoked an Andrew Chafin pitch straight at Pennington, who easily doubled Rosario off second. More >
"Sometimes you have a great at-bat and everything goes your way, and sometimes you have a bad at-bat and everything goes your way," McKenry said. "Tonight, I had a good at-bat and it didn't go our way."
STILL STREAKING
Tulowitzki knocked a soft single into right field off Anderson in the sixth inning to extend his career-best hit streak to 16 games. Tulowitzki also drew a first-inning walk to run his on-base streak to a career-high 31 games.
WHAT'S NEXT
Rockies: Righty David Hale (2-3, 5.5 ERA) gave up two two-run homers in the first inning of his last start, a road loss to the Athletics. He gave up another run, also on a homer, but otherwise pitched well. Hale will face the D-backs on Saturday at 8:10 p.m. MT with hopes of avoiding the home run.
D-backs: Patrick Corbin makes his first start of the season in the third game of the series at 7:10 p.m. MST. Corbin missed all of 2014 and the beginning of this season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The left-hander, who was an All-Star in 2013, is 3-1 with a 4.09 ERA in seven career starts against the Rockies.
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