Diamondbacks' comeback derailed by Arenado's game-winning homer
DENVER -- The Arizona Diamondbacks had a chance for another road sweep. Thanks to Nolan Arenado, they couldn't complete their comeback against the Colorado Rockies.
Arizona erased a six-run deficit late, but Arenado hit a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning, and the Rockies beat the Diamondbacks 8-7 on Wednesday to end their five-game winning streak.
Yasmany Tomas had three hits and Paul Goldschmidt added two doubles for the Diamondbacks, who head back to Phoenix after a 5-4 road trip. The Diamondbacks are 5-12 at Chase Field, the second-worst home record in baseball after Atlanta.
"Now it's time to defend our home field," manager Chip Hale said. "That's another chapter that we have to open up."
Arenado rescued Colorado after starter Chad Bettis and the bullpen blew a six-run lead. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Arenado hit Tyler Clippard's 2-2 pitch just inside the foul pole in left field for his major league-best 13th homer of the season.
Clippard (2-1) had gotten two strikes on Arenado with a splitter, but the next one he threw drifted over the plate and Arenado hit it 402 feet.
"I executed the 1-1 split pretty good, trying to keep it down," Clippard said. "The fact that he was able to get a good piece of the bat on that pitch riding in on him and keep it fair, I thought was pretty impressive."
Gonzalez German (1-0) got the win, and Jake McGee pitched the ninth for his ninth save.
The Rockies built a 7-1 lead on Charlie Blackmon's solo homer in the third, his two-run single in the fourth and Ryan Rayburn's double in the sixth that drove in two more.
Bettis retired 12 straight after Jean Segura's double to lead off the game, but ran into trouble in the seventh. Arizona started the inning with three straight hits and Bettis left after Chris Owings' RBI single made it 7-4.
"Early on Bettis did a really good job of in and out, up and down, changing speeds," Hale said. "But we figured it out, got it going and scored some runs."
Two doubles, a triple and an infield single tied it in the eighth and took a win away from Bettis. He allowed four runs on nine hits and matched a career high with eight strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.
Arizona starter Robbie Ray gave up five runs -- three earned -- and fanned a career-high nine in 4 2/3 innings.
SECOND GUESSING
Some poor footwork led to Colorado's two-run sixth inning. With Blackmon on first, Mark Reynolds hit a grounder to shortstop with two outs. Nick Ahmed went to Segura for the force at second, but he didn't get his foot down before Blackmon slid in. Rayburn followed with a two-run double.
"When you play these shifts, the one thing that becomes difficult is when the second baseman gets on the other side of second," Arizona manager Chip Hale said. "He's trying to get to the base, see where the ball is. Nick even said, `Hey, I just should have thrown it to first base.'"
TRAINER'S ROOM
Diamondbacks: OF David Peralta will see a hand specialist in Arizona on Thursday. Peralta has not played since Sunday because of a sore right wrist.
Rockies: INF Daniel Descalso (broken left hand) played in another rehab game and is getting closer to returning from the 15-day DL. "I'm not sure if it's his last (rehab game) but things are going well for him," manager Walt Weiss said. ... Weiss said C Nick Hundley (oblique strain) is making progress. Hundley was placed on the 15-day DL on Friday.
GOLD STANDARD
Goldschmidt's RBI single in the sixth extended his streak of reaching base against the Rockies to 44 games. That tied him with Ryan Klesko for the third-longest against Colorado, and it's the longest active streak in the majors against any team.
UP NEXT
Diamondbacks: RHP Zack Greinke (3-2, 5.15 ERA) will open a four-game series at home against San Francisco on Thursday. He is 8-0 with a 2.12 ERA in 11 career starts against the Giants.
