Colorado Rockies: Senzatela’s Uneven Return Ends Win Streak

There’s a lot of good news coming from the Rockies’ clubhouse these days.  They were riding a season-high 7-game winning streak and looking powerful at Coors Field.

Going into the All-Star break, Colorado had clawed their way back into the NL West race and had clear motivation for the second half.

Antonio Senzatela, capitalizing on Chad Bettis‘ injury (blisters) had produced some quality starts before a dip onto the DL himself.

Coming out of the break, the Rockies took two thrillers on the road in Arizona before dropping the series finale.

Senzatela, pressed back into action and threw a ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh at us with five hits, four runs, two walks and six strikeouts in 5-1/3 innings of work.

For the Diamondbacks, Zack Greinke was in his mid-season groove, surrendering just two hits and one run with 13 strikeouts over eight masterful innings.  The lone Rockies run came on Ian Desmond’s 19th home run of the season (special thanks to commenter ‘oldfart1939’ for pointing out our Story/Desmond mixup in our previous article).  Desmond began the season in a slump but has risen his average to .238 for the season, no small feat.

DJ LeMahieu has been moved back to the DL with an oblique strain and Garrett Hampson seemed unprepared for his start at second.  Hampson went 0-for-3 at the plate and committed a costly fielding error that sparked the D’Backs 3-run sixth.

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The loss moved the Rockies back into third place in the NL West, half-a-game back of Arizona and two back of division-leading Los Angeles.  The overall rise in the standings has been a boon for the Rockies, though and they’ve improved their road record to 30-23 while evening the home record at 23-23.

Colorado travels today and returns home for five games with two against the Astros and three with the Oakland Athletics.  If Colorado can continue their strong play at home and maintain their road success, the West and a playoff appearance are well within reach.