Charlie Blackmon Shakes Off Mini Slump, Rockies Stop Slide With Win In NY
NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees pitcher James Paxton allowed a leadoff home run for the second straight outing when Charlie Blackmon shook out of a slump with the first of his four hits, starting the Colorado Rockies to an 8-4 win on Sunday that halted a six-game skid and New York's five-game winning streak.
Blackmon had been 1 for 9 with four strikeouts in the first two games of the series before hitting the third leadoff homer against Paxton this season. Paxton gave up seven runs — four earned — five hits and three walks in 3 1/3 innings.
Former Rockie DJ LaMahieu homered on the first pitch from Rockies pitcher German Márquez (9-5) in the bottom of the first, Mike Tauchman went deep in the fifth and Aaron Hicks hit a two-run drive in the eighth off Scott Oberg.
Blackmon went 4 for 5, Nolan Arenado hit a tiebreaking, two-run double and David Dahl added a two-run single in the third, when three runs were unearned because first baseman Luke Voit allowed Tony Wolters' sacrifice bunt to bounce off his glove for an error. After Blackmon's single chased Paxton in the fourth, Trevor Story greeted Chad Green with a two-run double for a 7-1 lead.
"I think it was just a little bit of fatigue, just wasn't seeing the ball good for a little while," Blackmon said. "We needed that. We needed to put a couple of runs early."
Colorado had lost 13 of its 15 previous games and made a flurry of roster moves Sunday morning. Veteran infielder Mark Reynolds was designated for assignment two home runs shy of 300 after hitting .170 with four homers and 20 RBIs in 135 at-bats. Right-hander Jeff Hoffman and lefty Sam Howard were brought up from Triple-A and Antonio Senzatela demoted, after allowing six runs in 1 1/3 innings on Saturday.
Márquez allowed two runs and three hits in seven innings, improving to 7-0 with a 2.98 ERA in 14 interleague starts. After giving up 11 runs over 2 2/3 innings in a 19-2 loss to San Francisco on July 15, he lowered his ERA to 4.99, still the highest among qualified NL pitchers.
"The last couple of nights have been short starts, so to have him go seven innings in this heat is very impressive," Rockies manager Bud Black said.
HOT STUFF
Wolters played all nine innings behind the plate for the second straight afternoon and said he lost about 10 pounds in water weight Sunday. The public address system played Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" in the middle of the first. Wolters said plate umpires kept changing ice packs in their chest protector during inning breaks.
"It makes you appreciate the dry weather in Denver," Wolters said.
START ME UP
Chris Iannetta led off three innings with walks and scored in all three. Yankees C Gary Sánchez allowed Iannetta to score in the eighth on his sixth passed ball , down from 18 last year and 16 in 2017.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Rockies: Arenado was 1 for 4, a day after leaving in the eighth inning because of a right leg cramp.
UP NEXT
Rockies: RHP Peter Lambert (2-1) starts Monday at Washington.
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