Sugano, for his part, has quietly been the one thing worth watching on a Rockies team that's lost 46-73 and sitting at the bottom of MLB. He was a trade deadline chip that never got moved, and Coors Field gave him a standing ovation for a start that looked like a farewell before he ended up staying put. That gratitude storyline is nice, but it doesn't change the fact Colorado got run out of this same ballpark 9-0 the last time these two teams played.
Arizona's won 2 straight and taken 2 of 3 from the Dodgers before finishing off the Rockies, while Colorado's lost 2 in a row and dropped 4 of its last 5. The gap here isn't subtle. Geraldo Perdomo's knee soreness is worth watching after he left Monday's game early, but the D-backs have enough depth built up that one banged-up shortstop shouldn't derail a lineup that's clicking.
Colorado's pitching situation only gets uglier when you look at the injury list — Jose Quintana and Chase Dollander are both out for the year on the 60-day IL, and Tyler Freeman just went down with lumbar pain. That's a team without margin for error running out a patchwork roster against a club playing playoff baseball. Sugano can keep them in it for a few innings, but this Rockies bullpen isn't built to hold a lead if he hands them one.
For Arizona, this is exactly the kind of series a Wild Card contender is supposed to feast on. Beat up on the last-place team, stay hot, and worry about Gallen, Burnes and Nelson getting healthy for October later. For the Rockies, it's just another night trying to find something, anything, to build on before the season mercifully ends.