PHOENIX — The CliffNotes’ version of the Rockies’ 7-3 loss Friday night: Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly dazzled, Rockies starter Cal Quantrill struggled.
And so the Rockies have opened the 2024 season 0-2, outscored by the D-backs 23-4 at Chase Field.
Quantrill, acquired from Cleveland in a trade in November, pitched five innings and gave up five runs on nine hits. The right-hander walked one and struck out one. In his 6 2/3 innings, Kelly gave up three hits, struck out eight and walked one.
“It wasn’t my best day, and I wasn’t really commanding the fastball the way I wanted to,” said Quantrill, who had to rely on his split-finger changeup more than he wanted to, throwing it 30% of the time. “I could tell right away in the first inning and we had to go to our second and third gameplan pretty quick.”
Manager Bud Black said that overall, “Cal’s stuff was good,” but summed up the night by adding, ” “He battled, but he got out-pitched by their guy.”
The Diamondbacks hammered back-to-back, two-out homers off Quantrill in the first for a 2-0 lead. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. sent Quantill’s 2-0 cutter deep into the D-backs’ bullpen beyond left field. Christian Walker lined a 3-2 sinker into the left-field seats. His homer rocketed off the bat at 111.7 mph.
Colorado cut Arizona’s lead in half on catcher Elias Diaz’s one-out solo homer to left field in the second inning. Ezequiel Tovar followed with a single, but Kelly picked him off first base. From that point on, Kelly found his groove and retired 15 batters in a row.
“No surprises there,” Black said. “We’ve seen enough of him to know what his stuff does. Tonight, the changeup was really effective. It has great action in the hitting area; the bottom just falls out. Zack Greinke, in his prime, had that type of changeup. It’s (thrown) a little harder than most but it dives out of the strike zone.”
Arizona increased its lead to 3-1 in the third when it manufactured a run. Ketel Marte led off with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a flyball to center, and scored on Joc Pederson’s high-chopping infield single.
Theoretically, the Rockies still had a pulse when Quantrill departed with two men on and no outs in the sixth. But reliever Jake Bird, a reliable workhorse last season, gave up a run-scoring single to Eugenio Suarez, followed by an enormous three-run homer to right by Alex Thomas.
The Rockies scored twice in the eighth on a single by Brenton Doyle and a triple by Charlie Blackmon, who scored on a wild pitch.
The Rockies struck out 11 times, with Kris Bryant and Brendan Rodgers both fanning three times.
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