Diamondbacks catch Rockies in ninth

PHOENIX -- Two outs away from a two-game deficit in the National League Championship Series, the Arizona Diamondbacks clawed back Friday, turning an aborted double-play attempt into a ninth-inning run and taking the Colorado Rockies into extra innings tied, 2-2.

The rally started with one out when closer Manny Corpas hit Chris Young with an 0-2 pitch. Stephen Drew then followed with a single to right-center. But the Rockies, winners of 18 of the last 19 games, including four straight in the postseason, looked as if they might escape again when Eric Byrnes followed with a grounded to second baseman Kaz Matsui.

But what looked to be a game-ending double play unraveled when shortstop Troy Tulowitzki missed second base while reaching for Matsui’s throw as the tying run scored. It was a rare error for the best-fielding team in the majors and it kept Arizona from going down 0-2 in the best-of-seven series, a deficit no team in league championship series history has overcome after losing the first two at home.

The Rockies also took advantage of some poor fielding and some good fortune to get their runs. The best-hitting team in the league during the regular season, the Rockies saw their first run Friday set up by an error and the other scoring on back-to-back fly balls.

But they also made that stand up with some clutch pitching and a spectacular diving catch by center fielder Willy Taveras, who robbed Arizona’s Tony Clark of a game-tying hit in the seventh.

The Diamondbacks outhit and, arguably, outpitched the Rockies but couldn’t deliver the key blow until their final at-bat. The Rockies, meanwhile, scored their first run on an error and a two-out, two-strike bloop single that missed going foul by inches. And they got their second on a walk, a single and two fly balls.

One run was unearned and the other came home on two outs. Not the kind of offensive attack that’s going to make anyone forget the ’27 Yankees. But it was productive enough to make a winner of rookie Ubaldo Jimenez who, in five eventful innings, struck out six batters on pitches that ranged between 97 and 100 mph.

A conga line of relievers followed, combining to hold Arizona scoreless until the ninth.

But none of it was easy. Arizona went down in order just four times, getting the leadoff runner on four times. Yet just one of them scored.

They loaded the bases once and had a runner in scoring position two other times but left them all, scoring just a run for the second time in as many games.

Arizona Manager Bob Melvin tried to change his team’s luck by changing his lineup against the right-handed Jimenez, starting veteran switch-hitter Clark at first in place of Conor Jackson and using former Rockie Jeff Salazar, a left-handed hitter, in right field in place of rookie Justin Upton.

The moves met with only limited success, however, since Clark, before being robbed by Taveras, doubled and singled in his first two-bats but was stranded at second base both times. And then with the go-ahead runs in scoring position in the fifth, Jimenez walked him intentionally to get to Mark Reynolds, whom he struck out on three consecutive fastballs.

Hurdle also did some tweaking, dropping Thursday’s hero Brad Hawpe a spot in the batting order to seventh. And that move paid off immediately with Hawpe putting together an 11-pitch at-bat in the second inning, fouling off five two-strike pitches before lining a 3-2 pitch into right for a single.

Yorvit Torrealba followed by dunking his own two-strike single just inside the foul line in right, scoring Todd Helton, who had reached on an error, from third.

Arizona tied it an inning later on a leadoff double by pitcher Doug Davis -- his first extra-base hit since 2005 -- and an RBI single by Chris Young. The Rockies then went back in front in the fifth with Taveras, playing his second game in a month, starting things by drawing a four-pitch walk. He went to second on a two-strike single by Kaz Matsui and came around to score on consecutive fly balls by Matt Holliday and Helton.

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com