LDN - Sports

Blue Jays overpower Rockies after lengthy delay

[June 29, 2016] DENVER -- The long wait was worth it Tuesday night for the Toronto Blue Jays.

They sat through a fierce rainstorm that pelted Coors Field with hail and delayed the start of the game for 2 hours, 41 minutes. The Blue Jays then tore into two Colorado pitchers while beating the Rockies 14-9.

The Blue Jays had lost their seven previous games at Coors Field -- three each in 2006 and 2010 and Monday night. The win was just their third in nine games.

Toronto piled up 18 hits and went 10-for-24 with runners in scoring position in a game that lasted 3 hours, 51 minutes and ended at 1:12 a.m. MDT.

"I don't know how you play 81 games here, if you want to know the truth," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "It's not easy. I don't how pitching staffs hold up when this is your home team, because it's a totally different game than you're used to. That's for sure."

Josh Donaldson tripled home three runs in a six-run fourth inning that put the Blue Jays ahead 7-4 and drove Rockies starter Eddie Butler from the game. Troy Tulowitzki, who was hitless in four at-bats Monday in his return to Coors Field, began the fourth-inning uprising with a home run, his 12th of the season.

Butler and Yohan Flande, who relieved him, each made errors that helped prolong the inning.

"The two errors definitely hurt," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "We could have certainly minimized the damage in those innings."

Kevin Pillar doubled home two runs in the sixth when the Blue Jays scored three runs off Flande to go ahead 11-5.

Michael Saunders' sacrifice fly in the seventh made it 12-5.

The Rockies got the scent of a comeback in their half of the seventh. Carlos Gonzalez, who went 4-for-5 with five RBIs, singled home a run and another scored when first baseman Edwin Encarnacion dropped a throw from shortstop Tulowitzki for what would have been the third out. Charlie Blackmon added a two-run single.

"It was one of those games you try to survive," Gibbons said.

Devon Travis' hard single off the glove of Colorado first baseman Mark Reynolds with two outs in the eighth upped the lead to 13-9. The Blue Jays, aided by two errors, scored another unearned run in the ninth.

"They're as good as advertised," Weiss said. "It's a potent lineup, and once they get rolling, you can see what happens."

Butler (2-5) gave up five hits and five runs, four earned, and needed 86 pitches to work 3 1/3 innings, his shortest start of the season. Flande allowed seven hits and six runs, five earned, in 2 2/3 innings.

Toronto starter J.A. Happ (10-3) gave up nine hits and five runs in five innings but had enough offensive backing to win his fourth consecutive start and remain undefeated against the Rockies. In seven games, six starts, Happ is 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA vs. Colorado.

[to top of second column]

Blue Jays relief pitcher Jesse Chavez (30) hits a three run triple in the fourth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

"You try to go out there and execute," Happ said. "I was getting frustrated, but you just got to go keep trying to make pitches. Sometimes I did, and sometimes I didn't. They made me pay when I didn't."

Most notably in that regard was Gonzalez, who hit an 0-2 slider that Happ said "stayed straight, just didn't move for me" for a three-run homer in the third that gave the Rockies what proved to be a short-lived 4-1 lead.

The homer was Gonzalez's 18th this season, his third in three games -- a grand slam and two three-run shots -- and his 1,000th hit with the Rockies. The blast into the second deck came after Cristhian Adames led off with a walk and Nolan Arenado doubled.

NOTES: Rockies 1B Mark Reynolds took over at second base in the ninth. It was his sixth career game at second base and first since Sept. 7, 2015, with St. Louis. ... Rockies 3B Nolan Arenado extended his hitting streak to 11 games in the third with his 125th career double. ... Rockies OF Ryan Raburn was scratched from the lineup due to illness but played first base in the ninth. ... Colorado SS Trevor Story was back in the lineup but was lifted in the eighth after he jammed his right middle finger. He didn't play Monday after getting hit with a pitch on that finger in the ninth inning Sunday. ... Rockies 2B DJ LeMahieu entered the game defensively in the eighth, struck out to end the inning and was taken out. He sustained a left knee contusion Sunday but said his knee felt much better Tuesday. ... Blue Jays RHP Gavin Floyd, who threw two pitches in a relief appearance at Chicago on Saturday, has a torn right lat muscle. He will be out eight to 12 weeks and could miss the balance of the season. ... Blue Jays LHP Brett Cecil (left lat strain) threw one perfect inning for Triple-A Buffalo in his second rehab appearance. Barring a setback, he will join the Blue Jays on Thursday when they open a homestand against Cleveland.

Back to top