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SPORTS Friday 6 OctOber 2017

Rockies fall short in wild-

card loss to Diamondbacks

By JOHN MARSHALL to earn their first postsea- Again, the Rockies tried to
AP Sports Writer son game in eight years. answer and, no surprise, it
PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) — For the playoff game be- was Arenado that started
The Colorado Rockies had tween NL West rivals, Colo- it.
been resilient all season, rado had hot right-hander Colorado’s third baseman
scraping their way into the Jon Gray on the mound had an MVP-type season,
postseason after the best with a lineup that included hitting .309 with 37 homers
start in franchise history fiz- a pair of NL MVP contend- and 130 RBIs to become
zled. ers, Nolan Arenado and NL the eighth player in major
The Rockies were able to batting champion Charlie league history with at least
summon some of that re- Blackmon. Carlos Gonza- three straight seasons with
solve again the National lez also had rounded into 35 homers and 130 RBIs. He
League wild card, but form after struggling much hit .377 in September and
never could fully dig their of the season, finding his in the wild-card game hit
way out of an early hole stroke just before the play- a ball deep to center for a
in a wild, 11-8 loss to the offs in what could be his fi- solo homer in the seventh
Arizona Diamondbacks on nal season in the Mile High inning off Bradley.
Wednesday. City. Trevor Story followed with
The Rockies had an up- Their hopes of advancing a homer in the next at-bat,
and-down regular season appeared to end quickly pulling the Rockies within
and their first playoff ap- as Gray struggled locating 8-7.
pearance since 2009 fol- pitches in the shortest post- But that was it. A.J. Pol-
lowed suit. season start in franchise lock hit a two-run triple Arizona Diamondbacks’ Archie Bradley rounds the bases on his
Colorado fell behind 6-0, history. Paul Goldschmidt and catcher Jeff Mathis two-run triple against the Colorado Rockies during the seventh
roughed up one of base- ended his 0-for-11 career dropped a bunt single to inning of the National League wild-card playoff baseball game,
ball’s best pitchers and ral- streak against him with a put Arizona up four runs. Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, in Phoenix.
lied to pull within one twice. three-run homer in the first Blackmon went 0 for 4 to Associated Press
The Diamondbacks had to inning and Daniel Descal- close out a spectacular
dig deep down in their bag so added a two-run shot season that had him in the
of scoring tricks to beat off Tyler Anderson, putting MVP conversation as well.
the Rockies, needing two Arizona up 6-0 before the He was the NL batting
homers, 17 hits, an RBI bunt Rockies could record nine champion at .331 and
single by a catcher and the outs. had a majors-high 213 hits.
first run-scoring triple by a But Colorado has 10 play- Blackmon set major league
relief pitcher in big league ers with postseason experi- records as a leadoff man
history. ence and found ways to with 103 RBIs and 383 total
The Diamondbacks’ scor- fight back all year. bases, while his 37 homers
ing cornucopia sends them After struggling against and 86 extra-base were
to the NL Division Series Arizona ace Zack Greinke third-most from the leadoff
against the Dodgers, start- early, the Rockies chased spot.
ing Friday in Los Angeles, him with a four-run fourth Gonzalez finished the regu-
and Colorado back to inning and cut the lead to lar season hitting .262 with
Denver. 6-5 on a groundout in the 14 homers in 57 RBIs, well
The Rockies opened the seventh. off his numbers in previous
season 44-26, but had to Colorado found itself in a seasons. He’s at the end of
play some tense games hole again in the bottom a seven-year, $80 million
down the stretch after fal- half, when reliever Archie contract extension, but the
tering the second half of Bradley, a career .098 hit- Rockies have a plethora of
the season. They made it, ter, became the first reliev- outfield options and have
finishing 87-75 and a game er to hit a postseason triple, seemed to be in no rush
ahead of Milwaukee for driving in two runs to put to offer a new contract to
the final NL wild-card spot the Diamondbacks up 8-5. their longtime star.q