Charlie Blackmon had three hits and three RBIs, Ezequiel Tovar, Ryan McMahon and Elehuris Montero had two hits each, and the Colorado Rockies held on to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 8-7 in Denver on Saturday night.
Tyler Kinley got the final out for his first save for Colorado (50-85), which snapped a four-game skid.
Kevin Kiermaier homered and Whit Merrifield, Daulton Varsho and Santiago Espinal had two hits each for Toronto. The Blue Jays (74-62) remain 1 1/2 games behind the Texas Rangers and 2 1/2 games behind the Houston Astros in the American League wild-card race.
Toronto got going early against Ty Blach. George Springer led off the game with a double, Davis Schneider walked and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit into a double play, sending Springer to third.
Merrifield singled to make it 1-0 and Alejandro Kirk and Ernie Clement loaded the bases with infield singles. Varsho’s bloop single made it 2-0 and Espinal hit a two-run single to center.
Kiermaier led off the second with his seventh homer to make it 5-0 and the Rockies answered in the bottom of the inning. An error, a walk and single loaded the bases and Blackmon drove in two runs with a single to left.
Blach (2-1) settled down to toss six innings, allowing five runs on nine hits.
Colorado got within a run in the fourth inning on Tovar’s two-run double to make it 5-4.
Blue Jays starter Yusei Kikuchi retired the first two batters in the fifth but walked the next two. Yimi Garcia came on, walked Montero to load the bases and Brenton Doyle tripled to put the Rockies up 7-5.
Blackmon singled to drive in Doyle with the fourth run of the inning.
Kikuchi (9-5) allowed six runs — two earned — on six hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out six and walked four.
Toronto rallied in the ninth. Springer led off with a walk against Justin Lawrence and scored on Schneider’s triple. Lawrence got the next two, threw a wild pitch to score Schneider and then loaded the bases with two walks and a hit batter.
Kinley came on and fanned pinch-hitter Spencer Horwitz to end it.
–Field Level Media
