After losing 16-1 on Opening Day to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Colorado Rockies failed to keep up with the red-hot Snakes as they fell to 0-2 on the season after losing 7-3 on Friday night.

Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly dazzled on the mound, stifling Rockies hitters over 6 2/3 innings of work. He allowed just one run on three hits while striking out eight batters. He generated 12 swings and misses while not issuing a single walk to earn his first win of the year.

The Rockies’ lone run against Kelly came in the second inning when catcher Elias Díaz (1-for-4, HR, RBI) hammered a hanging 82 mph curveball 411 feet to left field to make it a 2-1 ballgame in favor of the Diamondbacks.

Elias Díaz – Colorado Rockies (1)
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— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) March 30, 2024

Cal Quantrill made his Rockies debut on the mound as the starter, tossing five complete innings and allowing five runs on nine hits. The Diamondbacks scored two quick runs in the first inning on a pair of home runs from Lourdes Gurriel Jr (1-for-4, HR, RBI) and Christian Walker (1-for-5, HR, RBI).

After adding a run in the third, the game finally got away from the Rockies in the bottom of the sixth. Joc Pederson, who went a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate, led off with a single against Quantrill and was followed by a Gabriel Moreno walk. Bud Black turned to Jake Bird out of the bullpen to face Eugenio Suárez (2-for-4, RBI) who promptly singled in a run. Then, left-handed batted Alek Thomas launched a three-run homer to right field to make it a 7-1 ballgame.

Bird ended up tossing a scoreless seventh inning before turning things over to Tyler Kinley in the eighth. Kinley ran into trouble, loading the bases on a pair of walks and a base hit, but managed to escape the jam unscathed.

The Rockies offense managed to score a pair of runs in the top of the eighth thanks to a Charlie Blackmon (1-for-4, 3B, RBI) triple to score Brenton Doyle (1-for-3) and subsequently score on a wild pitch. In total, the Rockies offense tallied seven hits. Ryan McMahon continued a hot start to the season, going 2-for-4.

However, strikeouts continued to be a problem, as the team punched out 11 times while failing to draw a single walk. Contrastingly, the Diamondbacks struck out just twice while drawing four walks.

The Rockies kept the game relatively close until the sixth inning, but the holes in the team’s roster construction have continued to poke through. Quantrill managed to get through five, but the lack of strikeout ability from the pitching staff led to problems as the Diamondbacks were aggressive against pitches left up over the zone. Still, it doesn’t excuse the fact that the Rockies will have to find a way to get their offense clicking.

Up Next

The Rockies send left-hander Austin Gomber to the mound to try and write the ship. Gomber had an up-and-down spring training but ended on a high note at the end of camp. The Rockies are looking for Gomber to right the ship and find a way to tame an Arizona offense that has thrown out 23 runs over the first two games of the series. He will face Tommy Henry who also didn’t have the best spring training but turned in an effective 2023 campaign with the Diamondbacks.