PHOENIX – Roy Oswalt is trying to show the Colorado Rockies that he can be counted on for the rest of this season and possibly next.
The future depends on the veteran pitcher’s health and how much he has left in his right arm. For now, Oswalt is working his way back from a hamstring strain that had him on the disabled list for two months, and it still was affecting him in a 9-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night.
Oswalt (0-6) lasted 4 2/3 innings and allowed two runs on seven hits with five strikeouts in his first start since coming off the DL last week. He kept his team in the game before the Diamondbacks torched the Rockies’ bullpen for seven runs over the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
“I feel that I still have good enough stuff to get outs. I just started three starts, and the next thing I know, I tore my hamstring pretty bad,” Oswalt said. “Now I’m trying to come back from it. Everyone else got to play seven months. I’ve been playing just two months trying to come back in the thick of things.”
Oswalt’s counterpart, the Diamondbacks’ Wade Miley, is 6-0 in his career against the Rockies after he pitched 6 1/3 innings for the win. Miley allowed two runs on six hits and struck out five to improve to 10-10 this season.
“Same mentality I take against anybody else,” Miley said of his success against the Rockies. “Just go out and try to keep us in the game; that’s when things go bad, when you start thinking about stuff like that.”
Gerardo Parra doubled twice and drove in three runs, Aaron Hill had three hits and three RBIs, and Miguel Montero had three hits and scored twice on his bobblehead night, helping Miley get his first win since Aug. 6.
The Rockies got consecutive one-out hits from Wilin Rosario, Todd Helton and Nolan Arenado to cut Arizona’s lead to 4-2 and chase Miley.
Hill had a solo homer, and Paul Goldschmidt tripled and scored on Martin Prado’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning to restore the Diamondbacks’ four-run lead.
Parra’s one-out double to center field in the second inning drove in Montero and Matt Davidson to give the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead.
Arizona had runners at first and second in the fourth, but Parra lined back to Oswalt, who doubled off Montero at second base.
Oswalt left after issuing a walk to Goldschmidt in the fifth. He complained to home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez after the walk, apparently unhappy with not getting a call on a previous pitch.
“Typically, if he had been healthy and pitching all along I would let him try to get through that inning, but the pitch count was getting up, and I didn’t want him to red line too much,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. “He brings a lot of wisdom, and there is enough stuff. I thought it was a nice step forward for Roy.”
There were positives and negatives for Oswalt.
“Got a little bit of the velocity back, and the pitch command was pretty well,” he said. “I still don’t have 100 percent of my legs. I backed off a bit in the second trying to throw some balls down in the zone.”
Rob Scahill came on in relief and got the last out of the inning, retiring Prado on a popup. However, the Diamondbacks scored twice off Scahill in the sixth and twice off Mitchell Boggs in the seventh.
The Diamondbacks scored three runs in the eighth inning against Jeff Francis. Adam Eaton doubled in a run, and Hill added a two-run single.
Rockies rumpus
The Diamondbacks celebrated Hispanic Heritage Night on Saturday, and their typical Saturday home black jerseys said “Los Dbacks” on the front. ... Aaron Hill made the defensive play of the game, throwing out Todd Helton after going deep in the hole up the middle and making an off-balance throw to first base in the second inning. ... With his single in the top of the first, Rockies second baseman D.J. LeMahieu extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games.
