Rockies 2 - 5 Diamondbacks
Final
  for this game

NL West cellar dwellers start series in the desert

Aug 29, 2014 - 2:36 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - It's not exactly reaching for the unreachable star, but for the Colorado Rockies in 2014, it'll have to do.

The Rockies visit Chase Field to open a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night, and a sweep of the set could lift the visitors past Arizona and out of last place in the National League's West Division.

Both teams enter the weekend having lost three straight games.

Colorado began its seven-game road trip with a win at San Francisco, then proceeded to lose three in a row -- including Thursday's finale -- while managing just 10 hits and scoring three runs.

The Rockies are 4-26 in their last 30 road games.

"We just had a hard time scoring enough runs to win," manager Walt Weiss said. "We didn't have a lot of opportunities."

To be fair, Colorado is without its four top run-producers from last season -- Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, Michael Cuddyer and Wilin Rosario -- who combined for 315 RBI and 92 home runs.

Arizona, meanwhile, was held to one run in dropping a series finale to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday and has won just two of its last 11 games.

Colorado sends rookie Christian Bergman to the mound for the second time since he returned from a thumb injury that had shelved him for two months.

He was a 7-4 winner against Miami in his return start, the first victory of his big league career.

"I wouldn't say I was nervous, just kind of the excitement of being back out there," he said. "I just kind of settled in and tried to attack the strike zone and get some quick innings."

Arizona opposes him with Josh Collmenter, who's gotten no-decisions in two meetings with the Rockies this season while compiling a 6.00 ERA.

The Diamondbacks scored 21 runs in those two games.

He'd gone 0-2 with an 8.50 ERA in a four-start stretch before last Friday, but a skipped bullpen session before the outing yielded an 8 1/3-inning effort in which he allowed a single unearned run on four hits in a 5-1 defeat of San Diego.

"Give the arm a little break and we've been going at it quite a while now," Collmenter said. "It was just good to rest and be 100 percent."

Arizona has won seven of 12 games between the teams this season.






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