Arizona Rox Colorado !

Arizona took the final two games of the three game set, after Colorado won on opening day.

Game One featured first draft choice David Neid getting the start for Colorado. The righty faced Arizona lefthander Omar Daal.

Neid pitched fairly well, not quite a "quality" start, but did go six, surrendering four runs on six hits. The youngster walked five, and exited for a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh of a 4-4 game. Pinch-hitter Alex Cole singled, followed by an Eric Young hit-and-run single sending Cole to third. The Rockies then broke the tie on a Gerald Young double-play grounder. Colorado added an insurance run in the eighth and Steve Reed and Jeff Parrett combined for three shutout innings out of the bullpen to secure the victory.

Game two was downright brutal, and could be a precursor to things to come for many of the clubs in KOD8. Are we sure this game wasn't part of a Throneberry Division match-up? But being in the Uecker Division is appropriate as well, as comedy ruled the day. It was expansion baseball at it's finest, or maybe "worst" is a better way to put it. The game featured four errors (all by Colorado), five wild pitches, a passed ball, a balk, a hit batsman. All this along with 23 hits, 15 walks, and 21 runs made for an interesting day at the park needless to say.

The Diamondbacks started quickly against Colorado righty Armando Reynoso, putting a five spot up in the bottom of the first, and adding a solo run in third for an early 6-0 lead. But the Rockies chipped away with 2 in the 4th, 3 in the 5th, and a sixth inning tally that tied it up.

But the roof caved in on the Mile High nine after that, as the men from the desert put up four spots in the seventh and eighth, aided greatly by extremely poor play on part of the visitors. When the dust had settled on this wild and woolly affair, six of the D-Backs 14 runs were unearned, and the fans wondered if maybe their local high school teams might offer a more quality exhibition of how baseball is meant to be played.

After the silliness that prevailed in game two, game three was a crisp, well-played game showing that maybe these castoffs and unwanted men truly could be major league players after all. A tight, well pitched game saw the DiamondBacks use single runs in the seventh and eight to secure a 2-1 victory, spoiling the Rockies home opener. Colorado starter, lefthander Butch Henry, pitched 8 solid innings, striking out three, walking one, while surrendering 7 hits and two runs. D-Backs starter Amaury Telemaco was a little better though, going 7 2/3 innings, giving up only four hits, striking out five and giving up but one lone run.
--submitted by BikeMike (aka Mike Roberts)--