Colorado Rockies start road trip strong, beat Twins 7-3

Kyle Freeland struggled with command all night, but key pitches and a strong outing from the offense gave the Rockies an impressive 7-3 victory to kick off their road trip.

The Rockies struck first in the top of the second after Ian Desmond singled and Gerardo Parra walked to start the inning. Pat Valaika bunted and advanced both runners, and Desmond scored on a RBI groundout from Tony Wolters. Charlie Blackmon added a run on a bloop single to right field, scoring Parra.

The Twins promptly responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the second.

Parra followed up his rare walk in the second inning with a towering homer over the right-field wall to give the Rockies a 3-2 lead. The lead didn't last long though, as Byron Buxton drilled a ball over the center-field wall to tie the game at three.

That's all the runs the Twins would get off of Kyle Freeland, as he put together a strong six-inning outing. Although he walked four and allowed five hits, he limited the damage to just three runs while striking out three.

The Rockies offense exploded in the top of the sixth, as they tacked on four more runs. Ian Desmond and Tony Wolters both delivered a run, and Charlie Blackmon crushed a two-run bomb to center field to give the Rockies a 7-3 lead.

Chris Rusin and Adam Ottavino both came out of the bullpen and pitched an inning a piece, neither allowing a base runner.

Jake McGee came in to close the game, but couldn’t quite get the final out. Chris Gimenez struck out swinging on a pitch in the dirt, but made it to first base after Wolters didn’t tag him or throw the ball to first, thinking the game was over.

Greg Holland was then brought into the game to close things out, which, of course he did, and collected his 17th save of the year to secure the Rockies win.