And Qualls comes in as the Rockies goes 1-2-3, never hitting a ball hard. The Rockies start the 2009 campaign with a 9-8 loss and will need to regroup tomorrow.

Bottom 8. Grilli works around an Ojeda double and the DBacks come up empty. The Rockies will see new Arizona closer Chad Qualls in the 9th with the top of the lineup due up.

Top 8. Pena continues his work from the end of the 7th inning and the Rockies go down 1-2-3. The Rockies are down to their last three outs.

Grilli settles down and gets Byrnes, Clark, and Jackson in order after the Tracy HR. Stretch time in Phoenix with the DBacks leading 9-8.

Bottom 7. Jason Grilli is now on to pitch and BOOM Chad Tracy smashes one into the seats to make it 9-8. Unreal.

Top 7. SETH. SMITH. Smith absolutely crushes one into the right field seats WAY up off of the new pitcher Schoenweis, a lefty. We're tied up again after the 7th HR of the game. The LH hitters in the Rockies lineup have absolutely destroyed any LH pitcher that Arizona has thrown out there today.

And Embree comes in and induces a grounder to SS. Tulo steps on the bag at second and we're off to the 7th.

Bottom 6. Speier gets into a jam but almost gets out of it when Chris Young hits a rocket right at Garrett Atkins and he doubles Roberts off of second- from 2 on and 0 outs we now have 1 on and 2 outs. Still, Hurdle is going to the pen and we'll have Embree pitching to Drew. It's still 8-7 DBacks.

Speier looks good in his first inning of work.

Top 6. Buckner delivers a good inning and faces the minimum as the Rockies go quietly.

Bottom 5. And sure enough, Tony Clark makes it 8-7 with a titanic HR to deep center field. Rusch is chased and Speier will try his hand.

After a display of wildness with his fastball, Buckner freezes Tulowitzki on a 3-2 curveball and we're halfway home in the 2009 season opener. Rockies 7, Diamondbacks 7.

Slaten gets Helton and Atkins, but Brad Hawpe starts a two-out rally with a double to CF. Stewart follows that up by drilling a single to right center and Hawpe strolls home to tie up the game at 7 (Taco Bell, anyone?). And Bob Melvin gives Slaten a quick hook and the Rockies will now deal with the RHer Buckner.

Rusch gets out of the 4th with no further damage. And the DBacks are going to the pen and getting Doug Slaten. Kind of surprising that Webb didn't come out to try and officially get in the books (and he was only at 77 pitches), so we'll see what the Rockies can do against a questionable DBacks pen.

Webb escapes the 4th inning and Felipe Lopez takes Rusch into the right field seats for his second opposite field HR of the day. 7-6 Arizona. 13 runs and we're not even halfway through.

Rusch settles it down and get out of the 3rd.

Top 4. Tulo crushes a hanger into the left field seats and makes it 6-5. And Iannetta follows it up with ANOTHER HR to left field! We're tied up in the 4th inning at 6...this game looks like it's being played in Denver circa 1998.

Both Cook and Webb look bad today- no movement down on the ball, mistakes up in the zone, falling behind in the count, etc. Webb won't last much longer at this rate, as there is activity in the DBacks pen.

...and Tony Clark crushes a 2-run homer into the pool section of Chase Field. Suddenly, it's 6-4. Honestly, when was the last time Cook got rocked like this? Sure enough, Hurdle is going to the bullpen and we'll see if Rusch can fare any better.

Cook: 2.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 23.14 ERA. o_O

Bottom 3. You knew Arizona was going to answer. Young doubles into the LF corner, Drew walks, and Tracy drives Young in with a single to right. Byrnes then pops out to medium center field, Drew tests Spilly's arm and makes a great slide around a pretty good throw/tag effort to make the score 4-4.

Webb wriggles out of the inning and we'll go to the bottom of the 3rd.

AND HAWPE DELIVERS! 3 run double into the right-center gap! Hawpe worked the count to 3-1 and knew that Webb was going to have to come into his wheelhouse with the bases loaded. Sure enough, the pitch was right then and Hawpe punished it. 4-2 Rockies.

Helton and Atkins work walks. Webb is laboring and is nearing 60 pitches. Hawpe is up with the bases loaded and has a 2-0 count...

Top 3. Iannetta hits a rocket back up the middle but Webb makes a great play to get the lead out. Then Cook lofts a single into LF and Spilly goes down the RF line for a double, moving Cook to third. And in what is perhaps a very good sign, Smith puts the ball in play, grounding out to second but moving Cook across the plate. Arizona now leads 2-1.

Cook gets out of the inning by getting Webb to line out to Tulo and Lopez to ground out to Helton.

Bottom 2. Cook makes a great 2-2 pitch on the outside corner to K Tony Clark, who goes down flailing. Conor Jackson then cracks a solid single to left and Snyder follows that up with a double into the LF corner, scoring Jackson easily and making it 2-0 Arizona.

Top 1: Spilborghs hit by a pitch. Seth Smith fouls off a hit-and-run attempts where Spilly got a terrific jump. Smith then proceeds to ground weakly to Drew at short, who forces out Spilly at second. After Smith straight steals second, Helton flies weakly to CF and Atkins grounds out 5-3 to end the top half of the first inning.

Bottom 1. Felipe Lopez, replacing the very solid Orlando Hudson at 2B for the Diamondbacks and hitting at the top of the Arizona lineup, launches a bad pitch from Aaron Cook into the left field seats. It was the venerable "sinker that didn't sink" from Cookie. Ian Stewart then shows some range to his left and throws out the speedy Chris Young. Drew flies out to Spilborghs in center, and after Chad Tracy (who just kills the Rockies) singles up the middle on a good piece of hitting, Cook Ks Byrnes to end the inning.

Top 2. Hawpe singles up the middle to start off the inning, but is then a victim of a strike-em-out-throw-em-out when Ian Stewart lets a nasty Webb fastball go by him on the inside corner. Tulo grounds out to second, and Webb gets out of the second with an efficient inning.