Chad Kuhl shook off a first-pitch homer by Tyler Naquin to last into the eighth inning, Ryan McMahon hit a go-ahead two-run triple in the sixth and the Colorado Rockies held on to beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 Saturday night.
Charlie Blackmon added an RBI double in Colorado’s four-run sixth inning. Aramis Garcia also homered for the Reds, who lost their ninth in a row on the road.
Naquin homered for the second time this season, driving Kuhl’s first offering of the game the opposite way into the left field bleachers. Kuhl (3-0) retired the next 12 batters he faced before the Reds loaded the bases on three consecutive singles to start the fifth. However, Kuhl limited the damage by inducing a run-scoring double-play grounder from Garcia and getting Jake Fraley to fly out to end the inning.
Connor Overton, promoted from Triple-A Louisville ahead of his Reds’ and season debut, was relieved by Art Warren with one on and one out in the bottom of the sixth. Warren (0-1) walked Connor Joe and Charlie Blackmon followed with a run-scoring double. Joe scored on right fielder Fraley’s errant throw to the cutoff man, evening the score at 2-all. Randal Grichuk walked before McMahon tripled home two more runs to put the Rockies up 4-2. “We were linking our bats,” McMahon said. “Their pitcher came out tonight and threw pretty well. He came right at us. We didn’t really have an answer for him early. But all it took was that one big inning. I’m just glad we got it done and the bullpen and Chad took care of the rest.” It was an uncharacteristic outing for Warren, who had not allowed the opposition to score in five of his six previous outings. “It looked like right from the first pitch he didn’t have a great feel,” Reds manager David Bell said of Warren. “He was throwing hard but just couldn’t get a grip, just never really kind of found his flow out there. But he has been so good for us, so good for us each time. He’ll be ready to go next time.”
