The Colorado Rockies will not be losing 100 games in 2012. It took them far too long, but they managed to pull out a 7-5 win in extra innings on Monday. Sure, they may still lose 99 games, but at least it's not a big, round number. In a month as bad as September had been, avoiding big, round numbers was the best the team could really hope for.
Colorado's offense started off slowly, and the Diamondbacks were able to get a couple of runs on the scoreboard as Aaron Hill and Geraldo Parra both hit solo home runs in the first and fifth innings.
Drew Pomeranz had one of his best outings of the season, striking out seven in five innings while allowing the two solo home runs, but only three hits total. Unfortunately, another chance at a win eluded him despite one of his better nights on the mound.
It took until the seventh inning for the Rockies to solve Arizona's starter Wade Miley, pushing the score to 2-1 on a Wilin Rosario solo strike. Finally, the Rockies managed to string some more consistent offense together on in the eighth inning when Josh Rutiledge and Tyler Colvin put together back-to-back doubles to get two runs on the board and make it 3-2.
Rafael Betancourt was sent in to finish off the dirty work in the ninth, but blew the save when he allowed a solo home run to Paul Goldschmidt that tied the game up.
Colorado repeatedly blew chances to take a lead in the late innings, getting two men on in both the 10th and 12th innings. Both times, it came to nothing. Eventually, it worked out in the 13th inning when Colvin and Chris Nelson strung together back-to-back hits to knock in their fourth run of the game. Brad Bergesen ended up loading the bases for the Rockies when he walked Matt McBride, and Charlie Blackmon singled to push the score to 5-3.
Johnny Herrera reached on a Fielder's Choice to make it 6-3. Mike Zagurski gave the Rockies a free seventh run after a wild pitch, and finally ended the top of the inning by forcing Josh Rutledge into a lineout right after.
Down 7-3, the D-Backs got two men on thanks to Josh Outman becoming walk-happy early in the bottom of the 13th. They brought in Josh Roenkie, but the damage was already done. The bases loaded quickly and the D-Backs got two runs out of a walk-in and a sac-fly. The damage mercifully stopped there, and the Rockies took home the 7-5 win.
The two teams will meet again on Tuesday at 7:40 p.m. MT.