Elias Diaz delivered the go-ahead RBI single in a six-run seventh inning that propelled the Colorado Rockies to an 8-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday in Denver.
Ryan McMahon had four hits and scored two runs for the Rockies, while Diaz and Brendan Rodgers collected two hits apiece. Jacob Stallings and Charlie Blackmon each had two RBIs as Colorado secured its first series win this season, taking the first two of a three-game set against the defending champions.
The Rockies’ three-game winning streak is their longest since they won five straight last September.
Colorado starter Ryan Feltner allowed two hits over six innings before three relievers held the Rangers to three hits over the last three innings.
Ezequiel Duran and Leody Taveras each had two hits for Texas.
Colorado entered the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 3-2 after Taveras had put the Rangers ahead with a solo home run in the top of the frame.
Jordan Beck ignited the Rockies’ rally with a leadoff single off Texas reliever Jose Leclerc and advanced to second on Ezequiel Tovar’s sacrifice bunt. After Rodgers struck out, Texas summoned right-hander David Robertson to face the left-handed-hitting McMahon.
The Colorado third baseman smacked a game-tying RBI single up the middle, the first hit Robertson had surrendered to a left-hander in 33 at-bats this season. McMahon advanced to second on Robertson’s wild pitch and scored on Diaz’s single to put the Rockies ahead 4-3.
Robertson (2-1) never found his command. He plunked Sean Bouchard after Diaz’s hit and then walked Brenton Doyle to load the bases before being replaced by Cole Winn. Stallings greeted Winn with a two-run single, and Blackmon came off the bench to drill a two-run double down to blow the game open at 8-3.
Tyler Kinley (2-0) pitched a scoreless eighth before Nick Mears followed suit in the ninth to secure the win.
Colorado struck first when Hunter Goodman walloped a 444-foot home run to left-center off Rangers starter Andrew Heaney to lead off the bottom of the third. Texas rallied with two runs in the fifth behind a sacrifice fly from Marcus Semien and an RBI single from Nathaniel Lowe.
The Rockies pulled even at 2-2 in the sixth inning on Leclerc’s balk that forced in McMahon from third.
Colorado manager Bud Black was ejected after umpires ruled that the Rockies took too long to challenge an out call at second base on Tovar’s stolen-base attempt that ended the fifth inning.
–Field Level Media
