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Sam Hilliard's clutch homer, Ezequiel Tovar's walk-off send Rockies to win over Red Sox in 12 innings

Kyle Newman, The Denver Post on

Published in Baseball

The Rockies won as a visitor in their own ballpark on Monday at Fenway Park West.

In front of a pro-Boston gathering of 35,261 at Coors Field, Colorado outlasted the Red Sox 9-8 in 12 innings to claim the series opener. LoDo rising star Ezequiel Tovar roped the walk-off single to improve the Rockies to 6-4 in extras this year and send the red-clad crowd streaming toward the exits.

Prior to that, the Rockies blew two leads and staged a comeback of their own to tie the game in the 10th on Sam Hilliard’s two-run homer in a dramatic interleague affair.

After a couple of quiet innings to open the game, Colorado jumped out to a significant lead in the third.

In that frame, rookie Aaron Schunk’s rollover grounder down the third base line hit the bag, resulting in an infield single and jump-starting a big inning. Charlie Blackmon followed with a two-run homer to right on a hanging slider by Tanner Houck.

Ezequiel Tovar then had with a swinging bunt. And after Brenton Doyle’s RBI double and Michael Toglia’s RBI single added two more runs, the first-time All-Star Houck was down 4-0.

But the four-run lead, and Austin Gomber’s cruise control, couldn’t hold.

The Red Sox broke through with four runs of their own in the fifth, tying the game with clutch two-out swings. Jamie Westbrook’s three-run homer was the backbreaker, then All-Star Game MVP Jarren Duran blasted a triple and Rob Refsnyder’s single through the left side tied the game.

 

Gomber finished with four earned on six hits through 5 2/3, with one walk and five strikeouts.

The Rockies re-took the lead in the seventh following a decidedly Red Sox rendition of Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Brendan Rodgers singled against Josh Winckowski, then Jacob Stallings’ two-out double down the right field line scored Rodgers to make it 5-4.

Boston didn’t waste time squaring the score back up, as Connor Wong led off the eighth with an arching homer to right off southpaw Jalen Beeks that just cleared the out-of-town scoreboard. That energized the pro-Boston crowd on hand, but the Red Sox failed to grab the lead with further traffic when Beeks induced an inning-ending double play.

The Red Sox appeared to have the final say with two runs off Victor Vodnik in the 10th, thanks to Dominic Smith’s leadoff RBI double to score the California runner and then Rafael Devers’ sacrifice fly a couple of batters later. But Sam Hilliard came through with a two-run dinger in the bottom of the inning off right-hander Zack Kelly. Hilliard’s hit sailed 450 feet into the Boston bullpen to tie the game 7-7.

Justin Lawrence worked out of a jam in the 11th, getting a double-play ball and then inducing another groundout to end the inning. But the Rockies left runners on second and third in the bottom of the inning as right-hander Greg Weissert stymied them. At the conclusion of the inning, Red Sox manager Alex Cora was ejected for arguing with home plate umpire Mark Wegner.

Boston re-took the lead in the 12th via a two-out RBI single off Lawrence by Wilyer Abreu. In the bottom of the inning, Jake Cave scored Rodgers on a single that turned into a double on an error by Tyler O’Neil in left field. Then, a sacrifice fly by Hilliard and an intentional walk to Schunk set up Tovar’s walk-off single off ex-Rockie Chase Anderson.

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