Colorado Rockies morning after: Blackmon’s birthday homer no cause for celebration

On Friday, Charlie Blackmon marked his 36th birthday as the designated hitter for the Colorado Rockies as the Arizona Diamondbacks came to town to open a three-game series. However, the Diamondbacks were the ones celebrating after posting a 9-3 win.

Charlie Blackmon, however, provided one of the few offensive highlights for the Colorado Rockies in the loss, swatting his 13th home run of the season (a solo shot) in the eighth inning.

It marked the second-ever home run for Blackmon on his birthday, with his other coming in 2011 against the Kansas City Royals as his first career home run.

That was Blackmon’s lone hit of the night, providing the man known as Chuck Nazty with a bittersweet feeling to the evening.

“I wish I had hit it in the first inning with a runner on base when we had a chance to take the lead,” Blackmon said. “Homers are always good. I just wish it had come with somebody on base.”

The home run also marked another milestone for Blackmon as he jumped over Larry Walker for second in total bases in Colorado Rockies history with 2,521.

Blackmon and Ryan McMahon each launched solo homers for the Rockies, part of six hits on the night for the team. No Colorado player had more than one hit as Arizona starter Merrill Kelly allowed just five hits and one earned run over seven innings of work.

It was the second strong start of the season for Kelly against the Rockies, following a May 6 outing in Arizona where he scattered seven hits over 8.2 frames and allowed just one run.

Arizona hopped on Colorado starter Antonio Senzatela for three runs in the first two innings before he left the game with what manager Bud Black called after the loss, “some inflammation and (right) shoulder tightness.”

The Rockies will have more information on Senzatela’s shoulder on Saturday. After the game, Senzatela said an MRI might be performed on Saturday to help the Rockies get a further diagnosis on his shoulder. We will provide information tomorrow when it becomes available.

Colorado and Arizona will continue the series on Saturday night, with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 p.m. (Mountain time). Austin Gomber (3-7, 6.55 ERA) returns to the rotation for the Rockies while Dallas Keuchel (2-5, 7.93 ERA) will make his second start of the season for Arizona.