Ketel Marte homered, Josh Rojas drove in three runs and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies 9-1 in Denver on Friday night.
Merrill Kelly pitched six innings to help the Diamondbacks win for the third time in four games.
Jurickson Profar had two hits for Colorado, which has lost six straight at home.
Both starters cruised through the first two innings before Arizona got on the board on Marte’s solo homer in the third. It came after Alek Thomas lined out to third baseman Ryan McMahon, who threw to first to double up Gabriel Moreno for the first two outs.
Colorado tied it in the bottom of the inning. Ezequiel Tovar led off with a single, went to second on a one-out base hit by Profar and scored on C.J. Cron’s two-out single to right.
McMahon walked to load the bases, but Kelly got Elias Diaz to ground into a forceout to end the inning.
The starters kept control of the game through six innings. Colorado’s Kyle Freeland allowed a leadoff single in the fourth, but he induced a double-play grounder en route to retiring eight straight batters.
Freeland faltered in the seventh. He walked Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to start the inning, Christian Walker followed with an RBI double and Justin Lawrence relieved Freeland.
Geraldo Perdomo put down a sacrifice bunt to move Walker over, Corbin Carroll walked and Walker scored on second baseman Alan Trejo’s error. Carroll scored on a Moreno sacrifice fly to make it 4-1.
Freeland (2-3) allowed three runs on five hits in six-plus innings.
Kelly (2-3) retired the last 10 batters he faced and left after allowing one run on six hits and striking out five.
The Diamondbacks padded the lead in the ninth. Perdomo and Carroll singled, and both scored on a double by Rojas. A botched rundown and a walk loaded the bases, and Marte drove in Rojas with a sacrifice fly.
Gurriel and Walker had RBI singles to finish the five-run inning.
–Field Level Media