After four, white-knuckle, walk-off wins on this homestand, the Rockies gladly took a romp in the ballpark Friday night.
Behind an explosive night from shortstop and a seven-inning start from , the Rockies pummeled Toronto 13-6 at .
The Rockies’ sixth consecutive victory — their longest win streak of the season — featured 17 hits — three of them by Story, who belted two home runs and drove in a career-high seven runs.
“I was fortunate to come up with runners in scoring position, and that’s a credit to my teammates,” Story said. “I was seeing the ball well and able to put some good swings on it.”
Story has hit 15 home runs, tying him with Milwaukee’s J.J. Hardy in 2007 for the most home runs ever for a National League shortstop prior to June.
Marquez gave up only four hits and struck out seven. He gave up two runs in the second inning, one on a leadoff home run by Randal Grichuck. Marquez improved to 6-2 and lowered his ERA to 3.48, but more importantly, he gave Colorado’s overworked bullpen a breather. Manager Bud Black called Marquez’s performance “critical.”
“If he didn’t come through, it would have been a tough one and it would have been tough tomorrow, too,” Black said.
Marquez, who also batted 2-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to five games, settled down after a rocky second inning.
“I just needed to slow down my mechanics and make my pitches,” he said.
The Blue Jays, flying into Colorado for the first time since 2016, were greeted rudely, especially starter Edwin Jackson, who opened the game by walking and then watched Story lift a two-run homer to left.
The Rockies, whose 183 runs scored this month are the fourth-most in for a single month in franchise history, were just getting started. ripped a two-run single to make it 4-0 in the first. Arenado’s two-run, ground-rule double to center in the second made it 6-2. Arenado (3-for-4, three RBIs) boosted his average to .344 and finished May batting .425 for the month.
Jackson stuck around for just 2 ⅓ innings, getting raked for a 10 runs on 10 hits. The 10 runs allowed tied a career high, and in eight career appearances at Coors Field (seven starts) he’s 0-4 with a 14.67 ERA.
Story’s home run in the first inning was just the beginning of his tale. He ripped a bases-loaded, three-run double in the third off Jackson and hit a mammoth, 442-foot home run off Sam Gavigilo in the seventh.
Right-hander Jesus Tinoco, 24, part of the 2015 trade that sent star shortstop to Toronto, made his big-league debut in the ninth inning. He gave up a leadoff double to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., then struck out Brandon Drury and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and finished off the game by getting Grichuck to bounce out to third.
The one blemish on the night was an ugly eighth inning in which the Blue Jays scored four runs off lefty relievers and . Rusin, making his first big-league appearance this season after returning from a back injury, gave up four runs on four hits — including a leadoff home run by Guerrero — in just one-third of an inning. McGee came in and promptly walked in a run.
