Willi Castro had two doubles, Jose Quintana pitched solidly into the sixth inning, and the Colorado Rockies held on to beat the Texas Rangers 7-6 in Denver on Monday night.
Ezequiel Tovar drove in two runs and Juan Mejia picked up his third save for Colorado, which prevailed on a cold, damp night.
Justin Foscue homered among his three hits and Ezequiel Duran also had three hits for Texas.
The Rockies took a lead against MacKenzie Gore (3-4) in the first inning. A leadoff double and two walks loaded the bases with no outs, Hunter Goodman struck out before Tovar hit a two-run double to left.
Gore got the final two outs but left the game with left lat tightness. He allowed two runs on three hits in his lone inning of work.
Texas got one back in the second inning when Duran singled with two outs and scored on Foscue’s double, but Colorado added to its lead in the third.
Goodman reached on an error, Tovar walked and both scored when third baseman Josh Jung misplayed a grounder by Kyle Karros for an error to make it 4-1, and the Rockies scored twice in the fourth.
Sterlin Thompson led off with his first major league hit, Braxton Fulford hit into a fielder’s choice, stole second and scored on Brenton Doyle’s single. Doyle stole second and scored on TJ Rumfield’s single to center.
The Rangers chipped away, making it 6-2 on Foscue’s solo homer in the fifth and scored again in the sixth on Foscue’s second RBI double of the game. Colorado got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Fulford walked, stole second and scored on Castro’s double.
Quintana (2-2) allowed three runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Down 7-3, the Rangers made it close in the eighth. Jung led off with a double and two walks loaded the bases with no outs. Duran drove in a pair with a single and Alejandro Osuna’s bases-loaded fielder’s choice brought home Danny Jansen.
A groundout and a foul out ended the threat.
