[August 09, 2014]PHOENIX -- All Arizona Diamondbacks
right fielder David Peralta needed was a little encouragement from his
teammates to add a steal of home to his growing list of rookie firsts.
Peralta timed a slow return throw from Colorado catcher Mike
McKenry to the mound to steal home in the seventh inning in the
Diamondbacks' 5-3 victory over the Rockies on Friday at Chase Field.
"I was waiting for the right time to do it," Peralta said. "The
catcher was throwing the ball soft to the pitcher, and as soon as I
got to third base I was aggressive. They (bench) saw that I was
trying to do something. They told me 'Do it. Do it. Don't be
afraid.' OK. I'm going to do it."
Peralta, who tripled in a run earlier in the seventh for a 4-1 lead,
stole home with two outs when McKenry lobbed the ball back to
left-hander Rex Brothers after a 1-2 pitch carried McKenry to the
first-base side of the plate.
"Honesty, I messed up," McKenry said. "The ball took me real far. I
gave a quick glance and didn't really see much and threw it right
back and didn't think twice about it. It was on me, it was my fault.
I already apologized to Rex. I feel awful about it."
Brothers rushed toward the plate in attempt to catch the throw, but
he could not catch it and Peralta scored easily. Peralta tied a
franchise record with 64 hits in his first 55 games.
"You could see he was gauging him," Arizona manager Kirk Gibson
said. "He just timed him up. It was just the perfect storm where the
pitch was. He (McKenry) just reached over and threw it up. We've
talked about it before. He kind of always does it, flips it back.
"Two outs, worth a try. He executed it perfectly."
Arizona catcher Miguel Montero hit a three-run home run in the first
inning and Peralta doubled, tripled, drove in a run and scored twice
back right-hander Chase Anderson (7-4), who made his fifth straight
quality start.
McKenry homered off Anderson in the fifth inning as the Rockies
(45-70) lost for the 23rd time in their last 25 road games, but the
home run was not foremost in his mind.
"Every out is precious and every run is precious," McKenry said.
"Even though we were down four runs at that point every run counts.
The biggest thing is to learn from your mistakes. I guarantee in my
whole career it will never happen again."
Colorado left fielder Corey Dickerson and second baseman DJ LeMahieu
had RBI singles in the ninth inning before Addison Reed struck out
Charlie Blackmon with two runners on for the final out.
Center fielder Ender Inciarte had two hits to extend his hitting
streak to eight games and Montero walked three times as Arizona
(50-66) broke a three-game losing streak.
Colorado lost 10 of its last 12 and is 23-56 since May 7, when it
was tied with San Francisco for the National League West lead.
Anderson gave up one run, struck out six and walked one in six innings.
His ERA is 3.06, the lowest it has been since he gave up one run in 5
1-3 innings in his major league debut May 11.
"It was good to give the team a chance to win," Anderson said. "Guys had
some big hits early. Peralta stole home. That was pretty sweet."
Colorado left-hander Tyler Matzek (2-7) allowed three runs and four hits
in five innings. He walked five.
Montero's homer, on a breaking ball, was only the sixth home run Matzek
has given up in 64 1/3 innings this season.
"He was on it," Matzek sadi. "It wasn't a very good pitch but he was
right on it. He might have been guessing at it. We had a runner on
second so he could have been sitting on off-speed. I threw it right in
his bat."
NOTES: Colorado SS Troy Tulowitzki (hip flexor) ran in the outfield and
did some defensive drills Friday but is still a week or so away from
returning, manager Walt Weiss indicated. Tulowitzki leads the majors
with a .340 batting average, although he will not have enough plate
appearances to qualify if he misses the next six games. ... Arizona
promoted LHP Andrew Chafin and OF Xavier Paul from Triple-A Reno on
Friday. Chafin, a starter in the minor leagues, will work out of the
bullpen, manager Kirk Gibson said. SS Nick Ahmed and OF Roger Kieschnick
were optioned to Reno to create roster space. ... LHP Brett Anderson had
an MRI on his back Friday in Denver, Rockies manager Walt Weiss said.
Results of the MRI were unknown. Anderson was removed from a Tuesday
start and placed on the disabled list because of back spasms.
