MICHAEL KELLY
Associated Press
DENVER (AP) — Wade Miley has been riding an up-and-down season on the mound. It continued Sunday when he followed his strong performance against San Francisco with a dud against Colorado.
Michael Cuddyer homered, Rafael Ynoa drove in three runs and the Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-3.
The Rockies swept a four-game series for the first time this season. It was their second sweep in as many homestands after going three months without one.
It came at the expense of the reeling Diamondbacks, who needed a strong outing from Miley (8-12) to salvage a game in his series. He held the Giants to one run over seven innings Monday but couldn’t match that outing against the Rockies. He allowed six runs on eight hits in 4 1-3 innings and walked four.
“Didn’t have very good command at all. And it’s getting old for me to have one good start and the next start where you walk three or four guys,” Miley said. “Couldn’t find the fastball early and it just kind of snowballed with every other pitch.”
Mark Trumbo homered twice and drove in all three runs for the Diamondbacks, who have lost six in a row and 13 of 16.
Brandon Barnes had two hits and two RBIs while Wilin Rosario also had two hits and scored three runs for Colorado, which is trying to avoid a third straight last-place finish.
The Rockies’ offense came into the homestand having scored 10 runs in six games but exploded against the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. Colorado scored 61 runs in its final six games at Coors Field this season to climb out of the NL West cellar, three games ahead of reeling Arizona.
“In June we swept them, outscored them 32-17. And it’s kind of a reversal in this series in four games,” Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said. “I don’t really have an explanation. We tried to throw everything at them. They swung the bats really well, scored a lot of runs. And we weren’t swinging the bats very well, so (we we’re) unable to shut them down.”
Rookie right-hander Christian Bergman (3-4) allowed two runs on six hits and struck out three in 5 2-3 innings to pick up the victory.
DJ LeMahieu got things rolling for Colorado with an RBI single in the second and Barnes made it 3-0 with a two-run double in the third.
The Rockies broke it open in the fifth off Miley. Stubbs had a run-scoring single and Ynoa doubled with the bases loaded to knock in two more and give Colorado a 6-0 lead.
Trumbo hit a two-run homer off Bergman in the sixth to make it 6-2.
Cuddyer led off the eighth with a home run off reliever Matt Stites, and Ynoa drove home another with a single to left to make it 8-2.
Trumbo homered off Juan Nicasio to start the ninth. It was his first multi-homer game of the season and fourth of his career.
“It was a decent day. Ultimately, it’s not a good day, but for me personally it was a step in the right direction,” Trumbo said.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Trumbo has found a comfort level at Coors Field. He is now hitting .400 with seven home runs and 15 RBIs in his last seven games in Denver.
UP NEXT
Diamondbacks: RHP Josh Collmenter (10-8) will face the Minnesota Twins for the first time while trying to set a career high in wins. Collmenter also had 10 wins in 2011.
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