Eduardo Rodriguez stars as Diamondbacks cruise past Rockies

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Jose Herrera homered, and Eduardo Rodriguez pitched a season-high seven innings as the Arizona Diamondbacks rolled past the Colorado Rockies 8-2 on Thursday night in Denver.

The win was Arizona’s sixth in its last seven games, improving them to 9-4 in August, and pulled them within 4 1/2 games of the New York Mets for the final NL wild card spot.



Rodriguez (5-7) was sharp, allowing just one run on six hits, striking out six and walking one. His lone mistake came in the fifth, when Kyle Farmer led off with a solo homer. Farmer finished with three hits, while Brenton Doyle homered in the ninth and Tyler Freeman added two hits for Colorado.


Arizona jumped on Rockies starter Bradley Blalock (1-4) early. After Geraldo Perdomo walked to start the game and Corbin Carroll drew another free pass, Gurriel launched a three-run homer - his 15th of the season - into the bullpen. In the second, Alek Thomas singled, and Herrera followed with a two-run shot over the right-field scoreboard, his second of the year.

The Diamondbacks struck again in the fourth. Herrera walked, Perdomo singled, and Ketel Marte doubled off the wall in right to drive in two more runs, chasing Blalock after just 3 2/3 innings. He allowed seven runs on six hits and four walks without recording a strikeout.

Arizona’s final run came in the seventh, when Carroll doubled home Perdomo. Perdomo and Thomas each had two hits, while Carroll and Marte added key RBIs.

The Rockies, who had their two-game winning streak snapped, have dropped eight of ten meetings with Arizona this season. Farmer’s and Doyle’s homers were Colorado’s only extra-base hits in the opener of the four-game set.