Segura powers Diamondbacks past Rockies
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[September 15, 2016]
PHOENIX -- Arizona manager Chip
Hale said he didn't expect to see 16-homer power from second baseman
Jean Segura.
As it turns out, neither did Segura.
Segura had five hits including a pair of home runs to power the
Arizona Diamondbacks past the Colorado Rockies 11-6 Wednesday,
completing a three-game sweep.
"I didn't realize I had that kind of power," Segura said. "It's a
good home field here at Chase Field, especially with the roof open,
but a homer is a homer."
Segura has hit four home runs the past two nights as the
Diamondbacks swept a home series for the first time since Sept. 29 -
Oct. 1, 2015, also against the Rockies.
"Obviously we needed all those runs," Hale said.
Brandon Drury homered in his third straight game and Chris Owings
also homered for the Diamondbacks.
Arizona finished with 16 hits, the 14th consecutive game against
Colorado in which the Diamondbacks had double-digit hits. It's the
longest single-season streak against a single opponent since the
Brooklyn Robins had a 17-game such streak against Philadelphia in
1930.
"It's a good offensive club that's hot right now," said Rockies
manager Walt Weiss. "They've got Segura. He's turned into a heck of
a player. Their offense shows up against us and once they get
rolling it's tough to stop them."
In their 19 meetings this season, Arizona and Colorado scored 265
runs, the highest combined total by two teams since 1969.
Right-hander Braden Shipley earned the victory in relief for the
Diamondbacks despite allowing five runs on eight hits in four-plus
innings. Shipley (4-3) walked one and struck out three.
"It's just hard because that order is so good at scoring runs," Hale
said. "They were on him pretty well at the end."
Charlie Blackmon had three hits including a triple and his 27th home
run, Daniel Descalso also homered, and Nolan Arenado had two doubles
among his three hits for the Rockies, who have lost four of five.
Rockies starter Jeff Hoffman (0-4) went 4 2/3 innings, allowing
seven runs -- four earned -- on eight hits and two walks with a
career-high five strikeouts.
"I thought I felt a lot more comfortable today," Hoffman said. "I
just kinda fell apart in the sixth. I had my best game stuff since
I've gotten here but I need to put it together where I have both,
the control and stuff too."
Blackmon gave the Rockies a quick 1-0 lead when he led off the game
with a home run just inside the right-field foul pole. It was
Blackmon's ninth leadoff homer of the season and 21st of his career.
Segura answered in the bottom of the first with a leadoff homer of
his own off Hoffman, his second in as many nights. Hoffman retired
the next two batters on infield line drives before Jake Lamb walked
and Yasmany Tomas doubled him home to make it 2-1.
It was the fourth time in Diamondbacks history that both Arizona and
its opponent hit leadoff home runs, the first since 2011.
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Arizona starter Rubby De La Rosa, after allowing the home run and
one other hit along with two walks in the first, hit Daniel Descalso
with a pitch leading off the second before being removed. De La
Rosa, who has been expected to throw up to 60 pitches over multiple
innings, needed 45 pitches to record three outs, two by strikeout.
"We're going to look at his health," Hale said. "He didn't seem to
have the same stuff and his command obviously wasn't there. I went
out there and asked him and he said he felt fine."
Randall Delgado finished the second before giving way to Shipley,
the Diamondbacks' designated reliever to piggyback with De La Rosa.
Segura hit his second home run in the fifth, following a single by
Shipley with a line drive just over the left-field fence to put the
Diamondbacks ahead 4-1.
It was Segura's second straight two-homer game, his third of the
season and fourth of his career.
Chris Owings doubled after Segura and scored from third when catcher
Tom Murphy dropped a throw from Mark Reynolds for a 5-1 lead. Lamb,
who was safe on the fielder's choice on the error, scored on a
double by Brandon Drury. Drury himself scored on a Socrates Brito to
make it 7-1.
Descalso hit a two-run homer in the top of the sixth to pull
Colorado within 7-3, but Owings hit his two-run homer in the bottom
of the inning to extend Arizona's lead to 9-3.
Colorado added three more in the seventh when Blackmon tripled, DJ
LeMahieu singled, Arenado doubled and Carlos Gonzalez singled before
the Rockies recorded an out. Gerardo Parra capped the rally with a
sacrifice fly to make it 9-6.
The Diamondbacks moved ahead 10-6 when Phil Gosselin hit a pinch-hit
single, advanced to third on a single and groundout and scored on a
wild pitch that bounced off the heel of Murphy's glove and over the
backstop into the stands.
Drury added a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth off Carlos
Estevez, Colorado's sixth of seven pitchers of the game. Drury
became the first Diamondbacks rookie to homer in three straight
games.
NOTES: Arizona scored a franchise-record 34 runs in the three-game
series. ... Rockies OF Gerardo Parra, out the past several days with
a strained right hamstring, returned to the lineup and hit sixth.
... Diamondbacks LHP Robbie Ray became the fastest left-hander to
200 strikeouts in his age 24-or-younger season since 1913, reaching
the plateau in 159 1/3 innings. Cleveland's Sam McDowell
accomplished the feat in 161 1/3 innings in 1965. ... Entering
Wednesday's games, the Rockies are 58-108 all-time in Phoenix versus
an 86-82 home mark against the Diamondbacks. ... Arizona INF Chris
Owings was credited with a triple from the Sept. 9 game against San
Francisco on a play originally ruled an error. With the change, he
leads the majors with 10 triples.
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