Arizona @ Colorado preview
Coors Field
Last Meeting ( May 26, 2010 ) Arizona 3, Colorado 7
The Colorado Rockies might be ready to finally get on a roll.
The Rockies take a season-high four-game winning streak into today's series finale against a struggling Arizona club.
While winning four straight is still a modest streak, Colorado is finally putting together a stretch of solid baseball where the hitting and pitching have started to click.
In their last five wins, the Rockies have outscored the opposition 28-12. With the exception of Sunday's 11-7 victory in Kansas City, the starting pitching has been solid.
And in that game the offense bailed out Aaron Cook, who didn't get out of the fifth inning, by blasting last season's American League Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke for eight runs in 3 1-3 innings.
The Rockies offense received a boost in Wednesday night's 7-3 win when center fielder Carlos Gonzalez returned to the lineup after missing three games with a wrist injury. He hit a solo homer in the seventh inning to support eight shutout innings from Ubaldo Jimenez, who became the first pitcher in the majors to reach nine wins.
Seth Smith hit two solo homers while Brad Hawpe added a two-run triple.
While the Rockies are playing well, the Diamondbacks are not. This isn't the way Arizona wanted to begin a nine-game trip within the division that features three-game stops in Colorado, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
After winning four straight last week, the Diamondbacks lost the series finale at home to Toronto on Sunday before dropping the first two games at Coors Field.
Mark Reynolds' three-run homer in the ninth off struggling reliever Rafael Betancourt, who has a fat 7.31 ERA, was Arizona's only bright spot Wednesday.
The Diamondbacks need right-hander Dan Haren to start pitching like he did last season when he won 14 games. He broke a two-start losing streak with eight good innings against the Blue Jays, but gave up four solo homers.
Keeping the ball in the park has been a problem all season for Haren, who has allowed 12 home runs in 67 2-3 innings, a bad sign heading into a start at Coors.
Haren won in Colorado on April 26, giving up two runs and five hits in eight innings. He gave up a first-inning home run to Gonzalez but struck out 10. Haren has recorded 70 strikeouts for the season.
Jason Hammel, the losing pitcher in that game, will oppose Haren again. Hammel gave up a three-run homer to Adam LaRoche and lasted only three innings while allowing five runs and six hits.
Hammel was the losing pitcher in Colorado's last defeat against the Royals on Friday night. He allowed five runs in 6 2-3 innings, including two homers by Jose Guillen.