The Colorado Rockies cranked out a ninth-inning run without the ball leaving the infield by scoring on pinch hitter Elias Diaz’s groundout to end a six-game losing streak by defeating the host Baltimore Orioles 4-3 on Sunday afternoon.
The Rockies continued a trend of late-inning troubles, but this time they recovered.
Ryan O’Hearn’s two-run, pinch-hit home run with one out in the eighth inning off reliever Jake Bird pulled Baltimore even at 3-3.
In each game of Colorado’s skid, the Rockies led or were tied after the midway point of the contest.
In the ninth on Sunday, Hunter Goodman led off with an infield single and went to second base on shortstop Gunnar Henderson’s throwing error. He moved to third on a groundout before coming home on Diaz’s grounder.
The American League East-leading Orioles lost for just the second time in nine games. They were denied what would have been their third series sweep during August.
Rockies starter Ty Blach held the Orioles to one run on three hits through seven innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. He was perfect for the first three innings.
Justin Lawrence (4-6) earned the victory with 1 1/3 innings of shutout relief. Yennier Cano (1-3) suffered the loss by giving up an unearned run.
Jack Flaherty, who was scratched from his start on Wednesday, gave the Orioles 5 2/3 innings on the mound. He surrendered three runs on seven hits.
Colorado had the only players in the game with more than one hit as Goodman and Ryan McMahon both were 2-for-4.
The Rockies went up 1-0 on Brendan Rodgers’ run-scoring single in the fourth inning. Michael Toglia’s fourth home run of the season made it 2-0 in the fifth.
The Orioles got on the board on Cedric Mullins’ 12th homer of the year, a solo blast with two outs in the fifth.
It was 3-1 after Goodman’s RBI single in the sixth.
Sunday marked the 1,000th game for manager Bud Black with the Rockies.
–Field Level Media
