DENVER (AP) -Maybe the Arizona Diamondbacks’ surprise season was a magnificent masquerade.
If so, they were unmasked by the charmed Colorado Rockies, who completed a four-game sweep in the NL championship series with a 6-4 victory Monday night.
Starting four rookies and two second-year players in Game 4, the Diamondbacks finally showed their age in this series. Arizona scored eight runs in four games, not nearly enough against a rollin’ Rockies team that seemed to catch every break.
One of those rookies, Micah Owings, had the Diamondbacks up 1-0 through three innings Monday thanks to his arm and his bat. Colorado’s six-run fourth, however, combined the sort of bad luck and poor play that dogged the Diamondbacks.
“Anybody, anytime” was the rallying cry for Arizona during its improbable drive to the NL West title and a league-best 90 victories. “Rarely anyone, ever” fit better at the finish.
Owings, a 25-year-old right-hander from Georgia, was tough on the Rockies through three innings, but he walked two with one out in the fourth. He made a diving stop of a soft grounder by Yorvit Torrealba and threw out the runner from his knees for the second out.
The pitcher came up limping with a sore left shin, but after talking with manager Bob Melvin and a trainer, Owings stayed in the game. Then came the sequence that so exemplified the entire series.
On a 1-2 count, pinch-hitter Seth Smith blooped a two-run double down the left-field line and Colorado led 2-1. Willy Taveras followed with a grounder that first baseman Conor Jackson booted. Jackson also made an error in his only other NLCS start, in Game 1.
Of course, the error would up haunting the snake-bitten Diamondbacks. Kaz Matsui singled in a run, then Matt Holliday hit one somewhere toward Boulder, a three-run homer that capped the six-run outburst.
On the mound for the first time in 18 days, Owings lasted just 3 2-3 innings. He allowed six runs – two earned – and six hits with two walks and two strikeouts. He scored Arizona’s lone run after reaching on an infield single.
Chris Snyder made it close with a three-run homer in the eighth. The end though, was the same as the other three games in this series.
Arizona brought the potential tying run to the plate with one out in the ninth, but Stephen Drew popped out on a 3-0 pitch before Eric Byrnes grounded out on a checked swing.
The game began with yet another baserunning blunder by the Diamondbacks. Chris Young led off with a single, but took off too soon while trying to steal second. Colorado pitcher Franklin Morales never did throw the ball. Instead, he ran toward the basepath and tagged out Young.
Arizona looked so good not long ago, sweeping the Chicago Cubs in three games in the division series.
But all season long, the offense was problematic. Arizona scrapped out 32 one-run victories and became the first team since the 1906 White Sox to have the best record and worst batting average (.250) in a league.
The kids head home with some painful lessons in the pressure of postseason baseball.
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