Offensive skid continues on rough road trip

PHOENIX -- Charlie Blackmon opened the game with a home run. Wilin Rosario added a two-run double later in the first. But the Rockies' potentially big offensive night ended right there.

The Rockies didn't score again and managed just two more hits after the first in their 4-3, 10-inning loss to the D-backs.

For the second half of June, the Rockies showed some of the offense they were expected to have, and climbed to the top of the National League stat sheet in many significant offensive categories, including runs. The offense was representative when they lost 2-of-3 in San Francisco to begin the current 10-game road trip. Now, however, they're 2-6 with two more games with the D-backs left. They've scored six runs in the last five games.

Manager Walt Weiss was upset with the previous two games because of poor offensive execution when they had chances early. The problem was even getting chances Friday.

After D-backs starter Chase Anderson gave up the three runs in the first, he shut down the Rockies for the rest of his six innings. The only other hit came in the 10th, on Nick Hundley's bunt single to put two on base with no outs.

Then the luck proved bad, even when the execution was good.

In the top of the 10th, pinch-hitter Michael McKenry was called to bunt early in the count against lefty reliever Andrew Chafin, whose pitches were all over the place. Freed to hit, McKenry smoked a liner into the glove of shortstop Cliff Pennington, who began a double play that deflated the Rockies.

"We're a good team, a good-hitting team," McKenry said. "You listen to any announcer that talks about us. You hear chatter when we come into any town, they're like, 'This team is really, really good. They can hit.' We've got to go out there with that belief every single day. It can shift at any moment."

Troy Tulowitzki extended his hit streak to 16 games and his on-base streak to 31. Nolan Arenado was hitless Friday, but that was just his second such game in the last 20. But other than them, only Rosario, Hundley and Ben Paulsen have more than three hits in the last eight games combined. The Rockies have 14 hits in the last three games.

"For everyone to hit at the same time is tough, and we're in that spot where we don't have enough guys hitting well at the same time," said DJ LeMahieu, who is 2-for-25 on the trip. "It's causing us to lose games right now."