Colomé making case; Márquez sharp in start

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – With 155 career Major League saves behind him, righty reliever Alex Colomé wasn’t going to let a couple misfortunes at the start of the Cactus League faze him.

The seventh inning of Wednesday afternoon’s 9-2 loss to the D-backs at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick started with Colomé dropping a flip from Michael Toglia while covering first base for an error, then a bloop single.

But Colomé responded, although he kept it exciting. He ran counts to 3-2 on Jose Fernandez and Matt Davidson. Drew Ellis tagged a pitch to left field, but a twisting Brenton Doyle made the catch near the warning track.

Manager Bud Black is waiting until later in camp to announce a closer, but Daniel Bard and Carlos Estévez, who delivered dominant innings with their power pitch mixes a day earlier against the Angels, are also under consideration. For now, it’s multiple guys pitching well for Black.

Colomé, who is scoreless in both of his Cactus League outings, used some finesse -- repeatedly pumping cutters, with the occasional four-seam fastball.

“I really like that -- he calls it a cutter -- sort of [a] secondary pitch, slider-cutter,” Black said. “It has great depth to it, good velocity. Some of their younger hitters swung and missed -- but we’ve seen, over the years, big league hitters, too.

“I saw it on the on the backfields as he was preparing to come into games and some of the work he’s done in bullpens. It’s nice. It’s a pretty simple, compact delivery with a lot of moving parts. He’s got arm strength and he commands the zone.”

Additionally, Black said righties Robert Stephenson and Tyler Kinley are also are pitching well, so he is encouraged about the state of Colorado's late innings bullpen.

Under control
Righty starter Germán Márquez achieved his objective of slowing the timing of his delivery in his 60-pitch (44-strike) outing, with six strikeouts against four hits and one run in 3 2/3 innings.

Consecutive doubles by Josh Rojas and Carson Kelly gave the D-backs their run in the fourth. Márquez struck out Seth Beer before Ben Bowden appeared in a left-on-left matchup against Alek Thomas.

In Márquez’s first Cactus League start on Friday against the Cubs, he felt quick.

“I’ve been working on little things, like my tempo,” Márquez said. “I slowed down a little bit, made my pitches.”

Márquez, who has incorporated a changeup to get back into counts or to get ahead, believes that he will be up to around a 90-pitch capacity when the regular season begins.

Blach in a spot?
Non-roster invitee Ty Blach worked around two hits in a scoreless inning. The lefty has given up two runs, with a lost ball in the sun being the culprit, in seven innings this spring. He was brought in for starter depth or long relief.

“We like the fact he’s got a starter background, with four or five pitches,” Black said. “If he doesn’t make the rotation out of Spring Training, there’s a good chance he could make it out of the bullpen as a guy who could eat up some innings, which we’ll need based on the shortened length of our starters out of the chute.”

Tough day for Sheffield
Righty Jordan Sheffield, who had moments last year as a Rule 5 Draft rookie, yielded six runs on four hits -- including two homers -- and two walks as he repeatedly missed up in the zone. Sheffield’s struggles could increase the chances of righty Ashton Goudeau, who has a 1.80 ERA in his two outings and is scheduled to pitch Thursday against the Giants. Both have Minor League options.

Righty Justin Lawrence, who has four strikeouts in as many innings pitched, has also impressed with his power mix. Lawrence is scheduled to throw on Thursday, as well.