Blackmon, Cron power Rockies past NL East-leading Braves 7-6

DENVER (AP) — Charlie Blackmon homered for the third straight game, Raimel Tapia had a go-ahead sacrifice fly and the Colorado Rockies hung on to beat the Atlanta Braves 7-6 Saturday night.

C.J. Cron also homered for the Rockies.

Ozzie Albies homered for the second time in as many games for the NL East-leading Braves, who remained two games in front of the Philadelphia Phillies. Travis d'Arnaud added a homer in the ninth.

The Braves loaded the bases with one out in the top of the eighth off Daniel Bard, but Robert Stephenson relieved and limited the damage to a run on Dansby Swanson’s sacrifice fly. He struck out Joc Pederson for the final out of the inning.

Carlos Estévez weathered a one-out solo home run by pinch-hitter d’Arnaud, retiring Albies and Jorge Soler on fly balls to the outfield for his fifth save in nine chances.

With the score tied at 4-all heading into the bottom of the sixth, the Rockies finally broke through against a Braves bullpen that had thrown 10 1/3 scoreless innings to that point in the first three games of the teams’ four-game set.

A.J. Minter (2-5) walked Ryan McMahon to start the inning, and Elías Díaz doubled. Raimel Tapia hit a sacrifice fly and Jesse Chavez relieved. He struck out pinch-hitter Joshua Fuentes, batting for Tyler Kinley (3-2), before giving up an RBI single to Garrett Hampson as the Rockies pulled in front by two runs.

Trevor Story added a run-scoring triple in the bottom of the seventh.

Neither starter figured in the decision, though Germán Márquez executed a suicide squeeze bunt to drive in a second run in the second inning, after Cron led the inning off with his 26th home run.

Blackmon connected for his 13th homer, a two-run drive, in the bottom of the third off Ian Anderson, who went three innings and allowed four runs...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Blackmon-Cron-power-Rockies-past-NL-East-leading-16436628.php