Rockies' bats quieted as D-backs take opener

DENVER -- Being at home was not a cure-all for the Rockies on Tuesday night.

After losing seven times on a nine-game road trip, the Rockies brought their cold offense to Coors Field and fell to the D-backs, 4-2, in front of 29,682.

The Rockies (28-29), whose season-high losing streak ran to five games and who fell below .500 for the first time since April 17, went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position. It was a reminder of their 7-for-62 performance on the road trip to Atlanta, Philadelphia and Cleveland.

"It runs in cycles," Rockies veteran Michael Cuddyer said. "Sometimes you're going to get hits in those situations, sometimes you're not. Sometimes the whole team's going to be hot, sometimes it's going to be cold."

The only bright side of this bummer of a beginning of a 10-game homestand was they didn't lose ground to the National League West-leading Giants, who also lost Monday and have an 8 1/2-game lead on the third-place Rockies.

"There are no secret words or magic potion or anything," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "You just got to fight your way through it. Certainly we're in a bit of a funk here but you got to fight through it; there's nothing else to do."

Throughout the road trip, the Rockies struggled with unfamiliar pitching. Although they were playing in the NL West on Tuesday night, they once again played as if D-backs rookie righty Chase Anderson (4-0) was too strange to hit. DJ LeMahieu's second homer of the season, in the fifth inning, was the only run they managed in Anderson's six innings.

"I knew it was a tough lineup coming into the game," Anderson said. "You see those guys, their averages are really high. I'm sure this park has something to do with it, but still, they're great hitters.

"I was able to keep the ball down for the most part. I hung one curveball. The defense made some pretty good plays behind me and the offense came through with some timely hitting, so it was great."

Another familiar issue was pain for left fielder Carlos Gonzalez, who for the third time this season left a game with swelling in his left index finger -- an issue that prevents him from being able to hold a bat or the ball. Gonzalez was 0-for-2 with a strikeout, and the two-time All-Star -- who also has had chronic left knee tendinitis and missed a game on the road trip when he fouled a pitch off his right calf -- saw his batting average drop to .255.

Gonzalez and Weiss each said the time has come to entertain whether a trip to the disabled list would do him good. The problem is there is no clear answer, beyond the fact surgery is not an option.

"There's not a time where you can say, 'OK.' It might need a few weeks, a month, whatever," a frustrated Gonzalez said.

Wilin Rosario attempted to score on Charlie Culberson's second-inning double into the right-field corner. Rosario was originally ruled safe, but replay showed that catcher Miguel Montero tagged Rosario's back in time.

"It's just kind of how it's going right now," Culberson said. 'We've just got to keep grinding. That game is over with."

Weiss said, "I don't know if it killed the momentum, maybe briefly. But it was early enough that we still had plenty of time to make it up."

Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who leads Major league players in All-Star voting, brought the Rockies to life with his 15th homer this season to lead off the ninth against Addison Reed. Corey Dickerson, who replaced Gonzalez to start the sixth, followed with a single before Culberson popped out and LeMahieu took a called third strike, one he protested to plate umpire Jerry Layne as the D-backs enjoyed the victory.

It was a rare home loss for Rockies left-handed starter Jorge De La Rosa (6-4), who had won his previous six decisions over seven starts. De La Rosa pitched around a one-out Chris Owings triple in the second. But at the start of the fourth, Nick Evans hit his first homer of the season, followed by Owings' fourth homer. De La Rosa gave up three runs on seven hits, with no strikeouts.

It was the first time this year De La Rosa, who has dealt with a bruised left middle finger in all of his starts for nearly a month, has coughed up two homers in a game.

"It bothered me but I've got no excuses," De La Rosa said. "I made some mistakes and that's where we lost the game.

"The first homer was a fastball right down the middle and the second one was a cutter over the middle. They hit them really good."

The loss was the first at home against the D-backs for De La Rosa, who was 8-0 in 10 starts -- all Rockies wins. Even with the loss, since the start of the 2010 season, De La Rosa's 22-5 record at Coors Field (.815) is the best of any pitcher at home in the Major Leagues.