DENVER -- Tyler Chatwood has been the poster pitcher for the Rockies highs and woes this spring. His fortunes epitomize a club that has surged on the road and struggled in Coors Field.
After two straight road wins when Chatwood allowed nothing but goose eggs, he unraveled Monday with two outs in the fifth, allowing five runs on five hits and a walk before recording another out. The three-run lead the Rockies owned as the inning opened turned into a deficit they never recovered from in a 10-5 loss to the D-backs.
"The two-out walk is the one that killed me," Chatwood said. "And then I wasn't able to stop it. We had a three-run lead -- I got to be able to stop that. It's kind of embarrassing. I didn't help our team. We lost the game that inning."
Chatwood brought a string of 16 1/3 scoreless innings to the mound Monday night for the opener of a three-game set with the D-backs. He lasted only four innings against the Dodgers in his last home start, which ended with a scoreless third and fourth but saw his pitch count at 95, prompting his early exit.
Since then, he threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings in a 9-0 win in Arizona on April 29, then went eight shutout innings in a 2-0 win in San Diego last Wednesday.
"It's disappointing after coming off such a high road trip," manager Walt Weiss said of the loss to open the homestand.
Throw in seven innings blanking the Cubs on April 17 and his final 3 1/3 scoreless in Arizona on April 6, and Chatwood has a 24 2/3 inning scoreless streak on the road. He boasts a 0.33 ERA away and accounts for four of the Rockies wins in their 10-9 road record.
His scoreless streak came to an end in the first frame, when Paul Goldschmidt -- who was 2-for-2 with two walks, an RBI, and three runs -- drove home Jean Segura, who led off with a double. Four of his remaining five innings were scoreless, but in the fifth Chatwood gave up five of his six runs -- all with two outs.
Segura knocked a two-out solo shot over the right field scoreboard to pull the D-backs within two, then Brandon Drury drew a walk and Goldschmidt singled to center, setting up a three-run bomb to the second deck in right from Jake Lamb. Welington Castillo doubled to center and Chris Herrmann bounced a triple off the Rockies' right-field fence.
"The walk's the one that hurt the most," Chatwood said. "Lamb hit a good pitch. We were going fastball in, and it was in there. He just beat me to the spot."
Over the course of his career, Chatwood had shown an ability to win at home, posting a 10-6 record with a 4.20 ERA in 24 games (20 starts) in Colorado entering play Monday.
This year, it's been a different story.
Chatwood is 0-3 with a 7.88 ERA after allowing 14 runs -- all earned -- over 16 innings. That's an extra seven and a half runs per game at home. The Rockies fell to 4-9 at Coors after Monday's loss, mirroring Chatwood's home/road splits.
"I don't have any explanation for it," Weiss said of the reversal of fortunes at home and on the road. "The first half of the game went pretty well. It looked like the wheels came off after that."