Blue Jays roll past Rockies
DENVER -- The long wait was worth it Tuesday night for the Toronto Blue Jays.
They sat through a fierce rainstorm that pelted Coors Field with hail and delayed the start of the game until 9:21 p.m. The Blue Jays then tore into two Colorado pitchers while beating the Rockies 14-9.
The Blue Jays had lost their seven previous games at Coors Field -- three each in 2006 and 2010 and Monday night. The win was just their third in nine games.
The Blue Jays had 18 hits and went 10-for-24 with runners in scoring position in a game that lasted 3 hours, 51 minutes and ended at 1:12 a.m.
Josh Donaldson tripled home three runs in the Blue Jays' six-run fourth that put them ahead 7-4 and drove Rockies starter Eddie Butler from the game. Troy Tulowitzki, who was hitless in four at-bats Monday in his return to Coors Field, began that fourth-inning uprising with a home run, his 12th of the season.
Butler and Yohan Flande, who relieved him, each made errors that helped prolong the inning.
Kevin Pillar doubled home two runs in the sixth when the Blue Jays scored three runs off Flande to go ahead 11-5.
Michael Saunders' sacrifice fly in the seventh made it 12-5. But the Rockies got the scent of a comeback in their half of the inning. Carlos Gonzalez, who went 4-for-5 with five RBIs, singled home a run and another scored when first baseman Edwin Encarnacion dropped a throw from shortstop Tulowitzki for what would have been the third out.
After Brandon Barnes followed with a single, Jason Grilli entered the game and walked Daniel Descalso to load the bases for Charlie Blackmon, who singled home two runs.
Devon Travis' hard single off the glove of first baseman Mark Reynolds with two outs in the eighth upped the lead to 13-9.
Butler (2-5) gave up five hits and five runs, four earned, and needed 86 pitches to work 3 1/3 innings, his shortest start of the season. Flande allowed six hits and six runs, five earned, in 2 1/3 innings.
Toronto starter J.A. Happ (10-3) gave up nine hits and five runs in five innings but had enough offensive backing to win his fourth straight start and remain undefeated against the Rockies.
In seven games, six starts, Happ is 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA against them.
Gonzalez hit a three-run homer in the third that gave the Rockies what proved to be a short-lived 4-1 lead before Butler was roughed up in the fourth.
The Blue Jays, aided by errors by two Rockies pitchers, exploded for six runs in the top of the fourth to go ahead 7-4.
Butler lasted just 3 1/3 innings, throwing 86 pitches in that span. He gave up a leadoff homer to Tulowitzki on an 0-2 slider, followed by Russell Martin's sharp single. With one out, Butler fielded Happ's bunt, but his low throw to second went into center, allowing Martin to take third.
Ezequiel Carrera's run-scoring single finished Butler and cut the Rockies' lead to 4-3. Flande gave up a single to Devon Travis that loaded the bases, and Donaldson cleared them with a triple.
He scored when Flande muffed Michael Saunders' comebacker.
The Rockies made it 7-5 on Charlie Blackmon's ground out in their half of the fourth, but the Blue Jays wasted no time restoring their three-run lead when Carrera doubled home a run with two outs in the fifth.
Gonzalez's three-run homer gave the Rockies a 4-1 lead in the third and gave him four RBIs. It was his 18th homer of the season, his third in three games -- a grand slam and two three-run shots -- and his 1,000th hit with the Rockies. The blast into the second deck in right on Happ's 0-2 slider came after Cristhian Adames led off with a walk and Nolan Arenado doubled.
In the third, Butler gave up a single to Devon Travis that evened the game at 1. The hit came after Kevin Pillar led off with a single and was sacrificed to second and Carrera walked.
With two outs, Butler walked Encarnacion to load the bases but wiggled free. Saunders drove Butler's first pitch deep to center, but Blackmon, after getting turned around, made the catch close to the wall.
Gonzalez lined a run-scoring single to center in the first after Blackmon and Adames began the inning with bloop singles.
NOTES: Rockies 1B Mark Reynolds took over at second base in the ninth. It was his sixth career game at second base and first since Sept. 7, 2015 with St. Louis. ... Rockies 3B Nolan Arenado extended his hitting streak to 11 games in the third with his 125th career double. ... The start of the game was delayed 2 hours, 41 minutes by rain. ... Rockies OF Ryan Raburn was scratched from the lineup due to illness. ... Rockies SS Trevor Story was back in the lineup. He didn't play Monday after getting hit with a pitch on his right middle finger in the ninth inning Sunday. ... Rockies 2B DJ LeMahieu hopes to play Wednesday. He suffered a left knee contusion Sunday but said his knee felt much better Tuesday. ... Blue Jays RHP Gavin Floyd, who threw two pitches in a relief appearance at Chicago on Saturday, has a torn right lat muscle. He will be out eight to 12 weeks and could miss the balance of the season. ... Blue Jays LHP Brett Cecil (left lat strain) threw 11 pitches, eight strikes, while pitching one perfect inning for Triple-A Buffalo in his second rehab appearance and barring a setback will join the Blue Jays on Thursday when they open a homestand against Cleveland.