Jose Ramirez went 4-for-5 and Steven Kwan made a stellar catch to prevent at least one run from scoring to help the Cleveland Guardians post a 7-5 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night in Denver.
Amed Rosario went 3-for-4 with his first homer of the season and scored four times as the Guardians earned their third straight win and their 12th in the past 15 games.
Colorado lost to Cleveland for the second straight night and has dropped nine of its past 13 games.
The Rockies moved within 6-5 with two outs in the seventh when Yonathan Daza hit an RBI single to center off Nick Sandlin.
Trevor Stephan entered with runners on first and third, and Jose Iglesias greeted him with a deep line drive to left. Kwan dashed to his right and made a diving catch on the warning track to keep the Guardians ahead.
In the ninth, Rosario tripled and scored on Oscar Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly to give Cleveland a cushion. Emmanuel Clase recorded the last three outs for his 13th save.
The Guardians scored three times in the fifth inning to take a 5-4 lead.
Rosario and Ramirez hit back-to-back one-out singles and then worked a double steal. Rockies catcher Elias Diaz threw wildly to third, and Rosario came around to score and Ramirez moved to third.
Later in the inning, Owen Miller hit a sacrifice fly to right to tie the score. Josh Naylor added an RBI double off the right-center-field fence to give Cleveland a 5-4 edge.
The Guardians made it 6-4 in the sixth when Chad Smith unleashed a wild pitch that allowed Rosario to score.
Cleveland reliever Bryan Shaw (3-0) pitched a perfect eighth.
Rockies starter Austin Gomber (3-7) gave up five runs and nine hits over 4 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one.
Guardians starter Konnor Pilkington allowed four runs (two earned) and six hits over 4 1/3 innings. He fanned three and walked one.
Cleveland struck first in the second inning on Oscar Mercado’s run-scoring single to right.
Colorado scored two runs on a play in the second when Diaz hit an infield topper with two outs that Pilkington fielded and threw wildly to first. Diaz was credited with a single and one RBI.
The Guardians knotted the score in the third when Rosario blasted a 447-foot homer to left-center field.
The Rockies scored twice in the bottom of the third to take a 4-2 lead. Brendan Rodgers scored on a wild pitch by Pilkington, and C.J. Cron scored later in the inning when Mercado dropped a two-out fly hit to shallow left by Iglesias.
–Field Level Media
