The Diamondbacks salvaged the series finale over the Colorado Rockies with a 9-4 win at Coors Field. Eduardo RodrÃguez showed why Arizona went after him in the offseason, striking out a season-high 11 in 6 1/3 innings for his first quality start of the season.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“Eduardo just went to work,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo postgame on DbacksTV. “6 1/3 innings, 11 punchouts, controlling the zone. He had a really aggressive fastball, was spotting it up. He was getting in on some right-handed hitters, I think that’s really important in this ballpark so they don’t get extension or look down out-over all the time. Great game plan and we won this game today because of Eduardo.”
It was clear early on that RodrÃguez had good fastball command early on, and he rode the fastball/cutter combo to success on the day. He located the four-seamer up in the zone for 11 whiffs and used the cutter as a backdoor pitch. Eight of his strikeouts came between the two pitches.
Eduardo RodrÃguez's 10th and 11th Ks pic.twitter.com/NFtzGRlbr0
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 18, 2024
The lone blemish against RodrÃguez came in the third inning. After consistently jumping ahead early in the count, the Rockies started swinging early in the count. Colorado got four hits in the inning, with only one ball hit above 95 MPH, as Ezequiel Tovar dropped a soft liner into shallow left to drive in two. RodrÃguez buckled down and finished strong, allowing just one single the rest of the way until he was lifted after getting the first out of the seventh.
“He was ready for this game, we needed him to step up in a big way and he did,” said Lovullo.
While RodrÃguez was shutting down the Rockies lineup, the Diamondbacks went to work on Austin Gomber. Corbin Carroll became the fourth Diamondback with consecutive 20 home run and 20 stolen base seasons with a long home run off Gomber in the first. Christian Walker and Gabriel Moreno added run-scoring singles to take a 3-0 lead.
Corbin Carroll logs his second straight 20/20 season. #Dbacks take a 3-0 lead in the 1st off Austin Gomber. pic.twitter.com/8tcbnYOcAb
— Michael McDermott (@MichaelMcD8393) September 18, 2024
“It was great to start off the day there, both personally and as a team, to put up some runs in the first,” said Carroll in a postgame interview on DbacksTV. “Gomber’s pitched pretty well vs. us this year, we owed him one.”
In the second, back-to-back home runs from Carroll and Randal Grichuk pushed the lead out to 6-0. They had a couple of big chances to plate a run to blow this game open, especially in the fifth inning. With two on, Jake McCarthy sliced a single into shallow left field, with Pavin Smith thrown out at the plate on a great throw from Sam Hilliard. In the seventh, they had the first two batters walk but could not get the ball out of the infield.
The Diamondbacks finally pushed the game out of slam range in the ninth. Carroll worked an 11-pitch walk and Joc Pederson took advantage of the hole on the right side of the infield to put runners on the corners with no outs. Christian Walker blooped a ball into shallow center that Brenton Doyle made a sliding catch on to score Carroll. Pavin Smith added the exclamation point, ripping a line drive in the right field corner to make it 8-2. Eugenio Suárez drove in Smith for their third three-run inning of the day.
With the win, the Diamondbacks’ magic number to clinch a postseason spot drops to 9.
Next Game
The Diamondbacks travel to Milwaukee to play the Brewers at American Family Field. Right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (9-9, 4.81 ERA) takes the mound for Arizona while right-hander Tobias Meyers (8-5, 3.07 ERA) goes for Milwaukee. First pitch is set for 4:15 P.M. MST, with FOX Sports handling the television broadcast.
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Michael McDermott covers the Arizona Diamondbacks, Arizona Cardinals, and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @MichaelMcDMLB
