It's all over but the crying down at Chase Field as the Arizona Diamondbacks ended their dreadful year in dreadful fashion with a 2-1 defeat by the Colorado Rockies. While there's much joy in cities with playoff-bound teams like San Francisco, Detroit, and Cincinnati, there's nothing but disappointment and frustration here in the Valley.
No triumphant impromptu pool party would be taking place at Chase Field to end this particular season as the D-backs instead stumbled across the finish line with a middling .500 record at 81-81. Nope, just a locker room filled with dejected players and a baseball stadium that was mostly empty by the time the final out was recorded.
In many ways, Wednesday night's defeat was a microcosm of the D-backs year as a whole: It was a one-run loss, pitching was decent, batters couldn't produce at the plate, the offense and defense didn't get in sync, and avoidable errors proved very costly.
For an example of the latter problem, look no further than Chris Johnson's gaffe in the fourth inning that allowed the Rockies their only two runs in the game. With runners at first and second, Colorado's Wilin Rosario hit a soft grounder that should've been an easy double play. Instead, Johnson's error on the throw to third allowed Charlie Blackmon to score. One hit later, courtesy of DJ LeMahieu, the Rox had another run.
Due to Johnson's fielding boner, neither run was charged to pitcher Ian Kennedy (15-12, 4.02), who threw seven solid innings and struck out eight. He was denied his 16th win of the season
The Diamondbacks' only run came in the third via rookie A.J. Pollock's 368-homer. None of Arizona's recent batch of clutch players (Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Hill, John McDonald) had anything to offer. Then again, they had nothing to prove by coming up with a game-winning home run either.
And thus ended a year that started with many hoping the D-backs would match or exceed their impossible playoff run from 2011, and ended with a loss to the cellar-dwelling Rockies.
See y'all in the spring D-backs. Hopefully you'll have your shit together.