Colorado Rockies catcher Jacob Stallings, front left, stands in between starting pitcher Cal Quantrill, back let, and Boston Red Sox's Reese McGuire as they argue after McGuire flied out to end the top of the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
DENVER (AP) — Brenton Doyle’s first career grand slam was one of four home runs by Colorado, and the Rockies tied a franchise record for runs in a 20-7 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday.
Ezequiel Tovar homered and singled twice, extended his hitting streak to 11 games with his homer in the first inning. Jacob Stallings also homered, Brendan Rodgers had four hits and Kris Bryant singled three times for the Rockies.
Cal Quantrill (7-7) tossed six solid innings as Colorado took two of three from the scuffling Red Sox. Boston has lost five of its first six coming out of the All-Star break.
The Red Sox used four relievers to get through seven innings, and infielder Dominic Smith pitched the eighth, working a clean inning on eight pitches.
Following the game, Boston announced that manager Alex Cora agreed to a three-year contract extension through the 2027 season.
“I’m just glad we got a deal done and everybody can concentrate on what really matters,” Cora said.
Boston had a season-high four errors that led to six unearned runs. Three of the errors came with Nick Pivetta on the mound. Pivetta (4-7), who entered Wednesday with a 13.85 ERA in four career starts against the Rockies, gave up eight runs, seven earned, in 2 2/3 innings.
“I didn’t have my best stuff,” Pivetta said. “Breaking pitches weren’t breaking the way I needed them too and they were ready to put barrels on baseballs.”
Both benches and bullpens cleared in the fourth when Reese McGuire and Quantrill exchanged words. McGuire took exception when Quantrill pumped his fist after getting him to fly out to end the top of the fourth and the players had to be separated.
Things cooled down without incident or anyone being ejected.
“I know Reese from our (Pittsburgh) Pirates days and I knew Cal wasn’t yelling at Reese initially,” said catcher Jacob Stallings, who got between McGuire and Quantrill. “I just wanted to calm things down before anything got too crazy.”
Colorado led 5-1 after the second inning, went ahead 8-1 on Stallings’ three-run homer in the third, and scored five times in the fourth. Ryan McMahon, who missed the last two games with a sore hand, hit a two-run homer, his 15th, to spark the rally.
Jarren Duran hit a solo homer in the fifth, his 13th, and drove in two more runs with a triple in the ninth. Rafael Devers had three hits for Boston.
Doyle hit his 17th home run off former teammate Chase Anderson in the sixth, capping a six-run inning. Five of the runs were unearned.
“That’s two series wins in a row,” Stallings said. “We’re playing good ball.”
UP NEXT
Red Sox: RHP Brayan Bello (10-5, 5.27 ERA) opens a three-game home series against the New York Yankees on Friday night.
Rockies: LHP Kyle Freeland (2-3, 5.63) begins a 10-game road trip against the San Francisco Giants on Friday night. Freeland is 2-0 with a 1.95 ERA in six starts since being activated from the 60-day IL.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
By MICHAEL KELLY
Associated Press
This post was last modified on 07/24/2024 7:13 pm
