The Rockies shuffled the deck Friday night at Chase Field. They still folded.
Left-hander Carson Palmquist was called up and made his major league debut. Jordan Beck led off, and former leadoff hitter Brenton Doyle hit fifth. Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar returned from a month-long stint on the injured list with a bruised left hip.
It didn’t matter.
The Diamondbacks romped, 8-0, behind a gem from veteran starter Corbin Burnes. He blanked the Rockies for six innings, allowed just two singles, and struck out 10. He did walk three, but Colorado’s clueless offense could not take advantage. Burnes extended his scoreless-innings streak to 16 innings.
“I think we are still pressing a lot,” Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer told reporters in Phoenix after his team fell to 0-4 since the club fired Bud Black.
“(Burnes) is really good, don’t get me wrong,” Schaeffer continued. “He’s a fantastic pitcher. But 14 punches for the second game in a row? That’s never going to get the job done.
“That’s not good enough. I don’t care if it’s Corbin Burnes or somebody else. You tip your hat to him, but we have to take better at-bats.”
The Rockies — who had just two hits, none after the fourth inning — have turned strikeouts into an art form. Their 432 strikeouts (27% rate) are the most in the majors.
Careening toward the worst season in major league history, the Rockies fell to 7-37, holding tight to the worst start to a season in baseball’s Modern Era (since 1901).
They tumbled to 2-21 on the road, where they are hitting .184 and are averaging just 2.04 runs per game, both the worst marks in the majors.
Palmquist, selected in the third round of the 2022 draft out of the University of Miami, gave up five runs on six hits over four innings. He walked one and didn’t strike out any. In seven starts for Triple-A Albuquerque before his promotion, the 24-year-old was 2-2 with a 3.82 ERA with 45 strikeouts vs. 18 walks.
“I thought he was really good,” Schaeffer said. “I thought he was poised, I thought he commanded his fastball, I thought his off-speed was good. He competed. That’s a lot to ask for in your first major league game.”
Schaeffer said it was “no big deal” that Palmquist failed to strike anybody out.
“That’s a good lineup over there,” he said. “They put the ball in play.”
Palmquist’s first big-league inning was scoreless, but Arizona punched him for two runs on two hits and a walk in the second.
Right fielder Corbin Carroll, having a sensational season for the D-backs, led off the third with a double to right, stole third, and scored on Eugenio Suarez’s sacrifice fly.
Arizona salted the game away with a two-run fourth. Former Rockie Randal Grichuk led off with a single, and Gabriel Moreno drove him home with a double down the left-field line. Moreno advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Geraldo Perdomo’s sacrifice fly.
Suarez’s two-run single in the seventh off Jimmy Herget added to Colorado’s misery.
Originally Published: May 16, 2025 at 10:48 PM MDT
