PHOENIX -- Sterlin Thompson, the Rockies’ No. 15 prospect per MLB Pipeline, began his Friday with a frenetic summoning from Las Vegas, where Triple-A Albuquerque was playing, to Chase Field.
“I got, like, 20 phone calls and just rushed to the airport,” he said.
In the ninth inning, he was in the right spot.
Thompson, who had been up for three games before being optioned back to Albuquerque on Tuesday, delivered his first career extra-base hit, a one-out double in the ninth. Chad Stevens, in the second game of his callup, delivered an RBI single to provide a 3-2 victory over the Diamondbacks.
To complete the Albuquerque takeover that ended with the Rockies snapping a three-game losing streak, Albuquerque manager Pedro Lopez windmilled his arm from the third-base coaching box to send Thompson home. Lopez was in the second of his two scheduled games standing in for Andy González, who was at his daughter’s high school graduation.
Thompson said he got an extra postgame charge when he viewed the highlight on his phone and heard Rockies television broadcaster Drew Goodman paraphrase his own catchphrase.
“I was just watching the videos, and the announcer said, ‘Here come the Isotopes,’ so it was funny,” Thompson said.
The ninth-inning performance of the new additions reversed the misery of a Rockies team that has struggled to execute in game-defining situations. That hasn’t been the case in Albuquerque for a team that has been at or near the top of its division in the Pacific Coast League.
“[Chad and I] have been doing that the whole year, late in the game, back to back, just getting on base and him driving me in,” Thompson said. “It was great late in the game to find a way to win.”
It was the first Major League RBI for Stevens, who debuted last season with the Angels and went 2-for-13 in five games.
“An awesome job by [Thompson] hitting a double, and then I don’t think I could have drawn it up better,” Stevens said.
The Rockies spent much of the game going back to the drawing board. They had runners in scoring position with fewer than two outs on three previous occasions and finished another inning with runners at first and second.
Even with the win, the Rockies tied a franchise record by failing to homer in their seventh straight game. It has happened twice previously -- July 28-Aug. 3, 2014, and April 18-24, 2007.
Thompson and Stevens batted eighth and ninth, respectively. Ahead of them, six-hole hitter Willi Castro was 2-for-4 with a run scored, and Ezequiel Tovar was 2-for-4 from the seventh spot. The runs didn’t flow, but the Rockies kept generating chances and grabbed the victory a night after dropping a 2-1 decision Thursday in the opener of a four-game set.
“This is a confident team,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “Sometimes it’s not going to go our way with growing pains, but we’re going to keep grinding. These guys grind every day. They prepare well and they get after it. It was a good win tonight.”
A Rockies constant in a positive sense, righty reliever Antonio Senzatela, entered with one out in the eighth and hit Nolan Arenado with a pitch. But he forced Ildemaro Vargas into an inning-ending double play grounder, then made himself the winning pitcher with a perfect ninth.