Brendan Rodgers homered in a six-run second inning, Ty Blach tossed seven strong innings, and the Colorado Rockies beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-4 in Denver on Wednesday night.
Colorado took two of three games from Cleveland, which came to Coors Field riding a nine-game winning streak. The Rockies tied or lost the first 12 series of the season but have won four of their past six, including against the Philadelphia Phillies and the Guardians on this just-completed homestand.
Brenton Doyle finished with two of the nine hits for Colorado while Josh Naylor and Brayan Rocchio had two hits each for Cleveland.
The Guardians jumped on Blach in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. Andres Gimenez singled and Jose Ramirez doubled with one out to put runners on second and third. Gimenez scored on Naylor’s groundout and Ramirez came home on David Fry’s single.
Blach (2-2) settled down after that. He allowed two runs on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts in his longest outing of the season. He pitched deep into the seventh against the Phillies on Friday night.
Cleveland starter Logan Allen struggled in his first start at Coors Field. He walked Ezequiel Tovar to lead off the bottom of the first, followed that with a wild pitch that moved Tovar to second. Tovar eventually scored on Ryan McMahon’s single.
Things unraveled for Allen in the second inning. Elehuris Montero led off with a single, Doyle walked and Jacob Stallings tied it with an RBI double. Sean Bouchard’s sacrifice fly drove in Doyle. Stallings scored on Hunter Goodman’s single to make it 4-2.
Rodgers followed with his second homer of the season. McMahon was hit by a pitch and Elias Diaz chased Allen with a run-scoring double.
Allen (6-3) allowed seven runs on six hits in just 1 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out one.
The Guardians scored twice in the ninth on RBI singles from Will Brennan and Rocchio. Cleveland had the tying run at the plate but Tyler Kinley struck out Gimenez to end the game.
–Field Level Media
