Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen, Geraldo Perdomo error to blame for late loss in Colorado

DENVER — Geraldo Perdomo took off his glove and flipped it into the air in frustration. Wearing a look of disbelief, he then turned to walk slowly off the field while the Colorado Rockies spilled out of their dugout to celebrate.

Perdomo’s throwing error gave the Rockies a 3-2, walk-off win at Coors Field Monday night and sent the Diamondbacks to one of their more inexplicable losses of the season.

Somehow, an offense that leads the majors in runs by nearly a country mile could not hit — not in baseball’s most hitter-friendly environment, not against the game’s worst pitching staff. And, somehow, the game ended with an unexpected mistake by perhaps the Diamondbacks’ steadiest defender.

Two batters into the game, the Diamondbacks led, 2-0. They did not score again. They got a strong start from Merrill Kelly, but watched as one of their top relievers, Kevin Ginkel, coughed up his second lead in as many days in the seventh.

Then in the ninth, a hurried throw by Perdomo bounced past first baseman Christian Walker, allowing the winning run to score without a play.

It added up to an ugly loss — and one that could prove costly with only 12 games remaining in the season and the Diamondbacks still trying to secure entry into the postseason.

If there was a silver lining, it was delivered by, of all teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers. On the other side of the country, the Dodgers demolished the Braves in Atlanta, allowing the Diamondbacks to maintain a two-game lead on a wild-card spot even as the New York Mets inched closer by beating the Washington Nationals.

With the Padres also victorious, they own a 2 1/2-game lead on the Diamondbacks for the top wild-card spot while Arizona, the Mets and Braves are each separated by a game, respectively.

Assuming the Padres maintain the top position, the Mets and Braves will have to pass or pull even with the Diamondbacks, who do not own the tiebreaker against either club, for the Diamondbacks to miss the postseason. That does not seem especially likely — FanGraphs’ projection system still likes their chances, putting them at 83.5 percent — but with the way the Diamondbacks have played in recent days it feels foolish to rule it out.

The Diamondbacks have lost three of four and six of 10.

“It’s frustrating,” Ginkel said. “This was a game we wanted to win, needed to win. And it didn’t go our way.”

Ginkel was a part of it. Handed a 2-1 lead, he left a 1-0 slider over the plate to Hunter Goodman, who knocked it into the left-field seats in the seventh inning. A day earlier, Ginkel blew a 5-3 lead against the Brewers, who scored four times off him. All five runs over the two days came with two outs.

“He’s one of our relievers; we need him,” manager Torey Lovullo said, explaining why he went right back to Ginkel a day later. “I don’t like him sitting around after tough days like that. I wanted to get him back in the saddle and pumping strikes and getting big outs.”

Before that, Kelly gave up just one run in six innings, holding the Rockies to two hits and two walks while striking out five. As it turned out, Kelly did not feel nearly so good as the line would indicate, something he saw as highly encouraging.

A few starts ago, he was struggling to get outs and pitch deep into games, but on Monday he turned in a strong outing without feeling his best.

“I think if I were in the spot I was three or four starts ago, I think the result would have been a lot worse than I did today,” Kelly said. “I think with how I feel and the mechanical stuff that I’ve been able to iron out, I think today not only shows maybe you guys but also myself, personally, that we’re still moving in the right direction. That I didn’t feel great tonight and can still manage through a game.”

With the game tied in the ninth, the Rockies had runners on first and second and nobody out when Brendan Rodgers hit a slow roller to second. Ketel Marte flipped to Perdomo, who had all kinds of time to finish the double play. Instead, he hurried and threw wildly, ending the game.

“It’s all my fault,” Perdomo said. “I was just rushing it a little bit over there. … I knew it was Rodgers running, but with a slow ground ball I just rushed it.”

Marte, the second batter of the game, blasted a two-run homer in the top of the first off Rockies right-hander Antonio Senzatela, but the Diamondbacks managed only six hits the rest of the way, none of them for extra bases, and hit into four double plays.

Senzatela went only three innings and three Rockies relievers combined to go the rest of the way, holding the Diamondbacks to just five baserunners over six innings. Many of the Diamondbacks' innings went by quickly, none faster than a three-pitch fifth, when Gabriel Moreno (single), Perdomo (double play) and Corbin Carroll (fly out) each swung at the first pitch from right-hander Anthony Molina.

“We’ve got to be better,” Perdomo said. “Three-pitch inning — that can’t happen. We’re better than that. Obviously offensively today we hit into so many ground ball double plays today. It sucked. That’s not our baseball.”

Said Lovullo: “I want patient approaches; that’s what we’re so good at, just driving up pitch counts and really forcing the pitcher into the trap game. We had some early go’s and it didn’t give us great results. That, to me, is the most important thing.”

Moreno returns to lineup as Del Castillo is optioned

DENVER — Gabriel Moreno was back in the lineup Monday night at Coors Field and set to make his first start since going down with a leg injury on Aug. 5 in Cleveland.

Manager Torey Lovullo said the Diamondbacks wanted him to take it easy as he works his way back into action, particularly when considering the venue.

“It’s always dangerous, in my opinion, when you come up here,” Lovullo said. “You potentially could be asking for some sort of an injury, a soft tissue injury. We told Gabi just low throttle, do what you can, go hard when you’re supposed to. But you might see him not doing what we do very well here and that’s going 100 percent all the time.”

Moreno was reinstated from the injured list Sunday and took an at-bat as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning. He did not catch because the club did not want him playing back-to-back days after he caught five innings at Salt River Fields on Saturday.

The Diamondbacks pared down to two catchers by optioning Adrian Del Castillo to Triple-A Reno, a move Lovullo described as a difficult one because of Del Castillo’s contributions over the past six weeks.

But while he was hitting .313/.368/.525 with four homers over 87 plate appearances, he also graded out behind backup Jose Herrera when it comes to defense, according to Lovullo, who said that helped inform the roster move.

“We challenged him to keep growing and continue getting better,” Lovullo said.

Del Castillo allowed 27 steals on 29 attempts over his 24 games. While many of those bases were stolen on the pitchers, Lovullo has estimated that something in the range of 15% to 18% could have been prevented with quicker and more accurate throws.

Reliever Scott McGough took Del Castillo’s spot on the roster, giving the club a fresh arm for the bullpen.

The Diamondbacks have long been hyper-conservative when it comes to player usage on their trips to Coors Field, and Lovullo suggested this trip will be no different. He intimated that second baseman Ketel Marte will get “off his feet” in one of the three games, though it was not clear if he meant a full day off or start at DH.

Injury updates on Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Paul Sewald

Outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is expected to play in a minor league game at Salt River Fields on Tuesday, Lovullo said, adding that Gurriel could still return from the injured list at some point on this road trip.

Gurriel ran at about 80 percent effort on Monday. When he plays Tuesday, he is expected to “go full tilt.”

“We’ll test the running a little bit more on the bases tomorrow,” Lovullo said.

Reliever Paul Sewald, who landed on the injured list Sunday, is dealing with a “disk problem” that is leading to left side/left shoulder discomfort, Lovullo said.

“He can’t go out there at full strength and compete,” Lovullo said.

Sewald’s IL placement was retroactive to Sept. 12, meaning the soonest he could return would be for the Sept. 27 game against the San Diego Padres.

Tuesday’s Diamondbacks-Rockies pitching matchup

Diamondbacks at Rockies, 5:40 p.m., Cox, Ch. 34

Diamondbacks LHP Jordan Montgomery (8-6, 6.25) vs. Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (2-10, 4.89).

At Chase Field: Montgomery has made four relief appearances since being bumped from the rotation last month, posting a 4.85 ERA in 13 innings. He will be getting the start in place of RHP Ryne Nelson, who landed on the injured list on Saturday with shoulder inflammation. … The last time he started was in Miami on Aug. 21, when he gave up six runs in 5 2/3 innings. … He has faced the Rockies once this season, holding them to three runs in six innings on Aug. 14 at Chase Field. … Feltner has been pitching well in recent starts, logging a 3.70 ERA in his past eight outings. … Most recently, he gave up two runs in 5 2/3 innings against the Tigers and before that held the Brewers to one run over six innings. … He has not faced the Diamondbacks since his first start of the year on March 31, when he gave up five runs (three earned) in five innings.

Coming up

Wednesday: At Colorado, 12:10 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (2-3, 5.50) vs. Rockies LHP Austin Gomber (5-10, 4.44).

Thursday: At Milwaukee, 4:15 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Brandon Pfaadt (9-9, 4.81) vs. Brewers TBA.

Friday: At Milwaukee, 5:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Zac Gallen (12-6, 3.61) vs. Brewers TBA.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen, Geraldo Perdomo error to blame for late loss in Colorado