Ezequiel Tovar and Ryan McMahon each homered and the Colorado Rockies held on for a 5-4 win over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night in Minneapolis.
Michael Toglia also drove in a run for the Rockies, who evened the three-game series at one win apiece heading into Wednesday afternoon’s rubber match. The Rockies won for only the third time in their past 11 games.
Byron Buxton went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run for Minnesota. Carlos Santana also hit a two-run homer for the Twins.
Rockies starter Cal Quantrill (6-4) pitched six scoreless innings. He scattered three hits, walked one and struck out five.
Twins left-hander Caleb Thielbar (2-2) took the loss out of the bullpen. He gave up four runs on three hits and a walk without recording an out.
Rockies reliever Tyler Kinley collected his fifth save despite allowing two runs in the ninth.
The game remained scoreless until the top of the sixth inning, when the Rockies erupted for four runs.
Charlie Blackmon led off the inning with a single. Brenton Doyle followed by drawing a walk, and Tovar delivered moments later with a three-run shot to left-center field.
The blast marked Tovar’s 11th homer of the season and his third in the past four games.
McMahon doubled after Tovar’s homer. He then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Toglia’s sacrifice fly to right to make it 4-0.
The Twins got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the seventh. Willi Castro drew a leadoff walk, and Buxton followed with a 439-foot, two-run homer to center.
It was Buxton’s fourth homer of the season and his first since May 21.
McMahon responded with a solo shot in the top of the eighth to increase Colorado’s lead to 5-2. He fouled off the first pitch he saw and crushed the next one 441 feet to right for his 11th homer, which matched Tovar for the team lead.
Minnesota cut the deficit to 5-4 in the ninth on Santana’s 10th homer.
–Field Level Media