Nolan Arenado, Carlos Gonzalez, Ben Paulsen, and D.J. LeMahieu each had two hits and Kyle Kendrick had one of his strongest outings of the year as the Colorado Rockies defeated the Cincinnati Reds 6-4 in Wednesday’s rubber match at Great American Ballpark.
Colorado jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on a two-out home run by Arenado in the first inning, scoring Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki. Cincinnati’s Todd Frazier answered in the bottom of the first with a solo shot off Kendrick.
Blackmon homered in the second inning – a two-run shot that scored LeMahieu – making it 5-1. Paulsen singled in the firth, scoring Gonzalez for the Rockies’ final offensive tally of the day.
Kendrick settled down and held the Reds scoreless for the next six innings, allowing just 2 hits during that stretch, before allowing a leadoff home run to Tucker Barnhart in the eighth.
Brayan Pena popped out in foul territory, but Kendrick allowed a single to Billy Hamilton and a walk to Skip Schumaker – enough traffic for manager Walt Weiss to make the call to Boone Logan.
Logan struggled, allowing consecutive base-on-balls to walk in a run. After a single by Jay Bruce in the next at-bat, Rafael Betancourt was called upon to stop the bleeding.
Betancourt got fly ball outs from Marlon Byrd and Zack Mozart to end the threat.
John Axford worked a perfect ninth for his eighth save in as many opportunities.
Colorado has a day off before starting a weekend series with Philadelphia on Friday.