Credit: Kirthmon F. Dozier / USA TODAY NETWORK
Randal Grichuk homered and Charlie Blackmon went 4-for-5 with two RBIs Sunday as the Colorado Rockies stopped the Detroit Tigers 6-2 in the rubber game of their weekend series in Detroit.
Chad Kuhl (2-0) delivered his second straight quality start, checking the Tigers on four hits and a run over six innings, with two walks and four strikeouts. The former Pittsburgh Pirate has permitted just two runs on eight hits in his first 16 1/3 innings with Colorado and sports a 1.10 ERA.
Tyler Alexander (0-2) was roughed up for eight hits and five runs over 3 2/3 innings in absorbing the loss. Alexander, who walked one and struck out two, has lasted just 10 innings in his first three starts.
Grichuk hit a two-run homer to left-center off a hanging off-speed pitch in the top of the third, his first homer with the Rockies. He was acquired in a trade with Toronto just before the season started. Grichuk went 3-for-4 and scored two runs Sunday.
Blackmon’s key hit was a two-run single in the fourth that chased Alexander and increased Colorado’s advantage to 5-1. The two-out hit scored Jose Iglesias and Connor Joe, who had kept the inning going with a double.
Kuhl kept Detroit at bay, relying on a sinker and slider for most of his outing. The Tigers’ only damage against him came in the third when Austin Meadows lined a two-out single to right that scored Tucker Barnhart.
Detroit’s only other run happened in the seventh when Robbie Grossman delivered a single to right that scored Barnhart. Grossman and Barnhart each had two hits for the Tigers, who were held to seven hits by Kuhl and three relievers.
C.J. Cron supplied a 1-0 lead in the first for the Rockies with a two-out RBI single, and Ryan McMahon added their last run in the fifth with a two-out single that scored Grichuk.
Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera, who reached the 3,000-hit mark for his career with a single on Saturday in the first game of a doubleheader, didn’t play Sunday.
–Field Level Media