PHOENIX -- As Dallas Keuchel took the mound Thursday night for his third start in a D-backs uniform, the public address system blared "I Am" by Rock Mafia.

I am worth it
I am blessed beyond belief
So slow it down, and stir it up
I got my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds, and nothin' can keep me down
I am courageous
I am, I am, I am
What I say I am

It's a tune the veteran left-hander first chose as his walk-up song back in 2014, but the words seemed particularly relevant these days as he looks to re-establish himself following his struggles in the second half of 2021 and the first half of '22.

After signing a Minor League deal following his release by the White Sox earlier this summer, Keuchel's first two outings for the D-backs were not what he was looking for -- 10 earned runs in 9 1/3 innings -- but he kept telling reporters that he was making progress.

During his between-starts bullpen session this week, he began to notice a change.

"I felt like I was kind of getting back to myself," Keuchel said. "But my bullpen a couple of days ago, kind of really felt like myself, and it just kind of carried over into Day 3 and Day 4, and then warming up today I kind of felt the same. So I knew if I could corral the strike zone early and try to get some early contact, it was going to be very, very beneficial to me."

The Rockies got back-to-back doubles to open the game and quickly scored two runs in the first, but after that they could only manage one additional run against Keuchel, who managed to pitch seven innings for the first time this season.

While the Rockies would go on to win, 4-3, on a ninth-inning RBI double by Randal Grichuk, the D-backs appear to have found a starter to replace the injured Humberto Castellanos in Keuchel.

The club received a strong recommendation from pitching coach Brent Strom to sign Keuchel, whom Strom worked with extensively with the Astros when Keuchel had some of the best years of his career, including his Cy Young Award season in 2015.

Despite those initial struggles in his first two outings with his new club, the D-backs didn't lose faith.

"He's easy to root for," D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "First of all, he's prepared. He understands what is happening in each at-bat. I felt like he was going to be able to command the baseball, and I felt like it was getting a little bit better each start. This was a pretty good outing. This kind of defines who he is -- just pounding the zone and getting a lot of ground-ball outs."

Keuchel recorded 11 ground-ball outs on the night, with just three coming on flyouts.

The loss was the second in a row for the D-backs, who felt like they had possibly turned the corner when they took the first two games of the Giants series only to blow a late lead in the series finale.

That momentum rolled into Thursday, when they managed to tie the game at 3-3 and keep it that way until ultimately falling in the ninth.

"You feel like after the type of series that we had against San Francisco that things would have kind of pushed us into a good spot for today," Lovullo said. "But, you know, we didn't win a baseball game, and that's what we're judged by. So we're all a little bit frustrated by that.”

Keuchel, though, took another step forward in reviving his career. Like the song says, his feet are on the ground and nothing can keep him down. Both he and the D-backs hope that will continue his next time on the mound and beyond.