Hilliard, Cron Lift Rockies Past Division-Chasing Dodgers
DENVER (AP) — Sam Hilliard lined a three-run homer, C.J. Cron had four hits and the Colorado Rockies snapped a five-game skid at Coors Field by beating the NL West title-chasing Los Angeles Dodgers 10-5 on Wednesday night.
The Dodgers may be in danger of losing more ground to division-leading San Francisco. They entered the day a game behind the Giants, who played late in San Diego.
This had all the makings of a pitchers' duel with All-Stars Walker Buehler and Germán Márquez on the mound. Instead, it was anything but, as the teams combined for 19 hits, including three homers and even a two-run double from Márquez that chased his counterpart from the game.
Luke Raley displayed his power by drilling a two-run homer to center in the third inning that was measured by Statcast at 472 feet. It's tied for the Dodgers' third-longest tracked by Statcast since 2015.
There was a big collision in the seventh when Charlie Blackmon ran into reliever Alex Vesia on a dribbler up the first-base line. Blackmon's helmet went flying and Vesia tumbled to the ground, losing control of the baseball. Blackmon reached on an error credited to Vesia, who took a few warmup pitchers before continuing.
Vesia wasn't the same. He gave up a run-scoring double to Cron. Hilliard later connected on a three-run homer after the Dodgers intentionally walked Elias Díaz to pitch to him. Hilliard's 12th homer of the season made it 10-5.
An inning after the collision, Blackmon came up again and was hit by a pitch from Evan Phillips.
Robert Stephenson (2-1) earned the win for the Rockies, who are 6-12 against the Dodgers this season. Dodgers reliever Justin Bruihl (0-1) took the loss.
Buehler and Márquez left with no-decisions. Buehler gave up five runs over 3 2/3 innings in his career-high 31st start of the season.
Márquez allowed five runs in four innings.