Keuchel, Diamondbacks' defense struggle in loss to Rockies

DENVER — Christian Walker hit a towering home run to left in the second inning, then a hard, low line drive to left for another homer in the sixth. In two other trips to the plate he hit a scorching liner back to the mound and laid off pitches out of the zone for walk.

For Walker, it was arguably his best game of the season in terms of at-bat quality. And yet he came away from it feeling sort of unsatisfied with his night. In the first inning, he fielded a ground ball at first base with a chance at a double play. Instead, his throw to second ended up in shallow left field.

Walker didn’t see it as the kind of play to beat himself up about. He did not seem to know what he could have done differently. But a part of him still felt lousy for the way it turned out, for how it ended up contributing to a disappointing night for left-hander Dallas Keuchel in the Diamondbacks’ 11-7 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

“No regrets,” Walker said of the play. “But a little bit of frustration that my pitcher did his job and I didn’t help him out.”

With a runner on first and one out in the first inning, the Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon hit a grounder to the right side. Walker gloved it, shuffled a bit toward the mound and threw to second. The throw looked like a good one — heading right toward shortstop Geraldo Perdomo — until it glanced off the left shoulder of baserunner Kris Bryant.

It was a rare defensive miscue from Walker, who entered Saturday ranked as the best first baseman in the majors by both Outs Above Average and Defensive Runs Saved.

It did not take long for the play to haunt the Diamondbacks. The next batter, C.J. Cron, shot a solid single to left to drive home Bryant. Brendan Rodgers followed by launching a three-run homer to left-center field. Just like that, the Rockies led, 4-0.

“‘Walk’ apologized to me and, I mean, my job is to make pitches,” Keuchel said, noting that the cutters he threw to Cron and Rodgers could have been better. “Listen, he’s a really, really good first baseman. He’s going to make plenty of good plays behind me.”

Walker said the speed of Blackmon’s grounder was a factor. Had he tried to create a better throwing lane, he said it would have cost the Diamondbacks a chance at a double play. He also credited Bryant for taking the sort of path to second that made the throw even tougher.

“I didn’t miss by much,” Walker said of the throw. “But it’s a game of inches. Maybe three inches to the left and we get a double play. At the very least, we get the lead runner and get out of it.

“Still, I practice that and I work hard at that. I felt like I should have made that play for him.”

The Rockies scored three more times off Keuchel in the fourth, another inning in which the Diamondbacks could not convert a batted ball into an out. With two out, the Rockies’ Randal Grichuk hit a ball to right-center field that fell just in front of the warning track, dropping between center fielder Alek Thomas and right fielder Jordan Luplow.

“With the quality of outfielders that we have and with that ball being in the air as long as it was,” manager Torey Lovullo said, “I feel like we should have made a little bit better play on it.”

Keuchel did not help himself after that, issuing consecutive walks to the Rockies’ Nos. 8 and 9 hitters before serving up a bases-clearing triple to leadoff man Connor Joe. But the defense behind Keuchel seemed to leave Lovullo feeling better about the left-hander’s performance than his pitching line — seven runs (six earned) in five innings — would otherwise indicate.

“I thought he threw the ball pretty good,” Lovullo said.

The home runs for Walker were his 20th and 21st of the season, the third-highest total in the National League behind the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber (23) and the Mets’ Pete Alonso (22).

“Very impressive,” Lovullo said. “They’re just good, compact swings. He’s hitting all pitches. … If you’re looking at the output and the home runs he’s hitting, they’re a result of a lot of hard work that he’s doing and he deserves a lot of credit.’

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.