Diamondbacks take series over Rockies with two runs in 9th inning

DENVER – The ball was flared into left field and hung there for what seemed like forever. Five days earlier, the Diamondbacks suffered a brutal loss to begin this road trip when a similar pop fly fell between their defenders. This time, they were on the receiving end of baseball good fortune. This time, they won a game because of it.

“The baseball gods,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said, “were good to us.”

Eugenio Suarez’s bloop to left in the top of the ninth fell for a two-run, tie-breaking double, lifting the Diamondbacks to a 5-3 win over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday afternoon at Coors Field.

The win gave the Diamondbacks a series victory, an encouraging finish to a trip that began with four consecutive losses, including a three-game sweep in Atlanta. For much of the trip, the bullpen struggled, the offense had trouble scoring late in games and the Diamondbacks clearly felt the absence of their injured regulars. Some of that reversed itself the past two days.

“It’s great to go home with a series in our pocket,” Suarez said. “It was a little bit tough in Atlanta, but we’ve been playing good. We’ve just got to keep going. Go home and play like this.”

On Wednesday, the bullpen threw well for the second time in as many days. The offense scored early, as it often has through the first two weeks, but it also scored late, delivering key hits in the seventh and ninth innings.

For a couple of days, at least, closer Paul Sewald’s stint in the injured list did not feel as pronounced. The bullpen logged seven shutout frames over the final two days of the series, allowing just six baserunners in the process.

As for shortstop Geraldo Perdomo’s absence, that was harder to figure. His fill-in, rookie Blaze Alexander, came to the plate three times. He homered, walked and singled. However, he also booted a routine ground ball, adding another mistake to a growing ledger of defensive miscues. It is enough to wonder how much longer the Diamondbacks will continue to run him out at the position.

“He’s a good baseball player,” Lovullo said. “Those are learning moments for him. He’s going to learn, he’s going to grow and he’s going to get coached up. We’re going to be right with him every step of the way.”

The Diamondbacks scored runs in each of the first two innings then failed to score for the next four. It felt like a continuation of a trend: an offense that scores early but can’t keep tacking on. Entering Wednesday, the Diamondbacks had more hits and runs than any team in the majors in the first three innings. But they also had the lowest batting average in baseball over the final three innings.

That trend might have begun to shift on Wednesday. In the seventh, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. lined a breaking ball into left-center to drive home the game-tying run. Then with the game still tied in the ninth, Suarez blooped a two-strike breaking ball from Rockies reliever Justin Lawrence into shallow left, where the Rockies’ Nolan Jones was unable to make a diving catch after charging from deep left field.

“I just shortened my swing a little bit and tried to put the ball in play, not try to hit a homer or something like that,” said Suarez, who snapped an 0-for-17 skid with the hit. “I didn’t want to punch out. I wanted to put the ball in play and see what happened.”

After lefty Tommy Henry turned in five workmanlike innings, the bullpen shut down the Rockies over the final four, starting with 2⅔ scoreless frames from right-hander Bryce Jarvis. Lefty Joe Mantiply got the final out of the eighth and reliever Kevin Ginkel closed the door in the ninth, though the Rockies made things interesting, loading the bases before Jones flew to center to end it.

On Friday and Saturday in Atlanta, the Diamondbacks endured a pair of crushing losses. On Friday, Jarred Kelenic’s flare fell between Diamondbacks’ defenders, allowing the tying run to score in a game they would eventually lose in extra innings. On Saturday, they had a 6-0 lead in the top of the first but ultimately could not hold down the Braves’ powerful offense. They had another lead on Monday and lost that game, as well.

The Diamondbacks did not play flawless baseball the past two days, but Lovullo said they showed him something – and made him proud.

“The past two games have not been easy for us to play,” Lovullo said. “I’m not going to lie. There have been some tough circumstances that we’ve walked through, some tough losses, but they’re tough, they’re strong, and they showed that today.”

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks updates: Arizona tops NL West opponent with two-run 9th