Nolan Jones and Sean Bouchard each hit home runs and the Colorado Rockies beat the Minnesota Twins 3-2 in 11 innings Sunday at Denver.
Brenton Doyle scored the game-winning run in the 11th inning as he attempted a steal of third base and continued home on a wild pitch by Twins position player Jordan Luplow.
Gavin Hollowell (2-0) pitched the 11th inning to earn the win for the Rockies (59-103), who manged just four hits while capping the worst season in franchise history.
Ryan Jeffers, Donovan Solano and Alex Kirilloff had two hits each for Minnesota (87-75), which will open the American League wild-card round against the Toronto Blue Jays at home on Tuesday.
Luplow (0-1) got his chance to pitch the 11th, with the playoff field decided and the result holding no meaning. He got Charlie Blackmon to pop out to start but his wild pitch allowed Doyle to score as the automatic runner.
Colorado used an opener for the second consecutive game and Brent Suter got through a clean first inning. Minnesota got to Rockies right-hander Connor Seabold in the second.
Max Kepler, Jeffers and Edouard Julien led off with singles to bring home the first run. After Willi Castro struck out, Kirilloff singled to left to drive in Jeffers and give the Twins a 2-0 lead.
Minnesota starter Bailey Ober retired the first 11 batters he faced but Jones got to him with two outs in the fourth with a 468-foot blast into the Twins’ bullpen. It was his 20th home run of the season to become the second Rockies player to reach 20 or more this season along with Ryan McMahon (23).
It was Colorado’s lone hit until Doyle reached on a bunt single with one out in the sixth. Ober left after striking out the first two batters of the seventh inning. He allowed one run on one hit and struck out nine.
Ober was denied the win when Bouchard hit a pinch-hit home run off of Jorge Alcala with two outs in the eighth inning to tie the game 2-2. It was the fourth of the season for Bouchard, with all of them coming in the past five games.
–Field Level Media