DENVER — It was a fine Sunday afternoon for busting slumps.
Second baseman Brendan Rodgers broke out of his deep early-season funk with two hits and four RBIs, and left-hander Kyle Freeland notched his first win of the season as the Rockies rolled the Reds, 10-1, at chilly Coors Field.
With their three-game sweep complete, the Rockies improved to 13-9 overall and 9-4 at home. Cincinnati lost its 10th consecutive road game and its 3-19 record is its worst start in franchise history.
Freeland pitched seven innings, yielding one run on just four hits. He struck out four, walked one and coaxed two double plays. He whittled his ERA from 6.16 to 4.85.
Rodgers, who had missed the previous four games because of a sore back, entered the game hitting .078 (4 for 51), with a 27.6% strikeout rate, one RBI and a minus-22 OPS+. But in Colorado’s six-run first inning, he lashed an RBI single to right off of beleaguered rookie left-hander Reiver Sanmartin. In the Rockies’ three-run third, Rodgers ripped a bases-loaded, three-run double to center off of reliever Buck Farmer.
Sanmartin didn’t make it through the first inning and departed after facing 10 hitters. In his two-thirds of an inning, the Rockies roughed him up with six hits, including a two-run homer by C.J. Cron, the first baseman’s eighth homer, tops in the National League.
Colorado’s big first inning also included the first big league hit by corner infield prospect Elehuris Montero, who was the designated hitter and batted ninth. In the second pitch of his first at-bat, Montero drove Sanmartin’s 85-mph change-up up the middle for a single. Montero added another single in the eighth inning.
The Rockies pounded out 14 hits to the Reds’ four, and Randal Grichuk hit his third home run, a 433-foot solo blast to left-center to lead off the eighth.
The Rockies are off on Monday before opening a three-game series on Tuesday against the Nationals at Coors.
