PHOENIX -- TJ Rumfield dialed up a play that had been strangely missing from the Rockies’ offensive strategy -- the home run. The quieter strategies, however, were the problem in Saturday night’s 5-4 loss to the Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
Rumfield’s eighth-inning leadoff shot to left-center off Brandon Pfaadt ended the team’s homerless streak at a club-record-tying seven games.
A poorly placed first-pitch strike from Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen that the normally patient Ketel Marte deposited for a two-run homer in the fifth inning, a fourth inning that started with bases loaded and no outs but ended with just two runs and a poor bunt from Ezequiel Tovar in the eighth led to defeat.
But thanks to Rumfield, the homer returned for the first time since Hunter Goodman went deep in a 9-1 loss to the Diamondbacks at Coors Field on May 15.
“Cutter, first pitch, for a ball and then I got a good sinker off the plate that I could handle, drove it to left-center and had a good result,” Rumfield said. “I don’t think anybody’s thinking about [the homer drought]. It’s just more so trying to have good at-bats.”
The Rockies were 3-4 during the stretch in which homers were in absentia, which was better than the other two record lulls -- 1-6 from July 28-Aug. 3, 2014 and 2-5 from April 14-24, 2007. Manager Warren Schaeffer made light of the principle that hitting the ball over the wall isn’t the be-all and end-all.
“You don’t need to win by hitting home runs,” Shaeffer said before the game with a smile. “You win by doing a lot of different things. We won a game [Friday] night without hitting a homer -- I’ll take that 162 times.”
Homers make things easier. But Rumfield’s was not part of a win because the Rockies made the game hard on themselves in other ways. The 20-33 record overall and 6-15 in May has been a stretch of runs and games left on the table because the execution Schaeffer has preached has gone wanting.
For example:
• Lorenzen wiggled out of second and third and no outs in the field, and yielded three in a taxing third. But the pitch to Marte left him with five runs and eight hits against, with five strikeouts in five innings. The night left him at wit’s end over his 7.21 ERA.
“He’s usually patient -- I went with the fastball, and I probably should have gone with something better,” Lorenzen said of Marte’s home run. “He’s probably the one guy that I didn’t pitch super-well, and he’s hot right now.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a 7 1/2 ERA, so this is probably the toughest stretch of my career, for sure.”
• With the power outage still active in the fourth, the Rox loaded the bases against Zac Gallen, then managed to hit the ball out of the infield just once -- on Troy Johnston’s RBI single. A golden chance ended with a 3-2 disadvantage.
“We got a couple of runs with bases loaded and nobody out, but we definitely let them off the hook with a punch [Chad Stevens’ strikeout] and a P6 [popout to shortstop by Kyle Karros] to end it,” Schaeffer said.
• After Rumfield’s homer cut the difference to one run, Tyler Freeman singled and Johnston walked. The Rockies played for the tie as the road team. Tovar had two chances at the bunt -- one went foul, the other went hard to first baseman Ildemaro Vargas, who threw to third for the force.
“We’ve just got to execute better,” Schaeffer said. “It’s the perfect opportunity, right-on-right with [Kevin] Ginkel, to lay a bunt down.”
It was the second game-costing poor bunt. In Thursday night’s 2-1 loss to Arizona, Braxton Fulford’s safety squeeze bunt went to the exact wrong place -- to pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, who threw out Tovar at the plate.
Home runs make winning more possible. Homers with crisp offensive execution makes victory actually occur.
“As an offense, we just want to try to get on base, move guys over, get them in -- just play baseball,” Rumfield said. “Try to execute the small things. Big things take care of themselves.”