Rockies end game with eight-straight hits to rally past Red Sox

Rockies Report, Game 79:

ROCKIES BOTTOM LINE: After being undone by calamitous baserunning and a dominant performance from Red Sox starter Jake Bennett, the Rockies exploded in the ninth off Boston closer Aroldis Chapman to steal a 3-2 series-opening win at Coors Field on Monday night.

For much of the night, Colorado’s offense was squelched. Bennett shut out the Rockies for six innings, striking out nine in the process. The Rox strung together four-consecutive hits in the eighth inning, but failed to score a run, committing two outs on the basepaths.

First, Edouard Julien hesitated as he took off from second base, allowing Boston center fielder Ceddane Rafaela to gun him down at home plate. One pitch later, Tyler Freeman singled to right field. Mickey Moniak held up at third base, but Willi Castro sprinted past second and headed for third. When Moniak froze, Castro was in no-man’s land, and he was thrown out retreating back to second base.

That might have been doom for the Rockies, but they ambushed Chapman, loading the bases within six pitches on three singles — the last of which saw Cole Carrigg beat Caleb Durbin’s throw.

Two pitches later, Chapman hung a sinker and McCarthy capitalized, rifling a drive toward the left-field corner. It seemed as if it would score two runs to knot the contest. But when Boston left fielder Jaren Duran completely misplayed the ball by the left-field wall, Carrigg kept chugging and slid head-first into home plate with the decisive run.

Duran wasn’t credited with an error and the hit went into the scorebook as a triple, but it allowed McCarthy to benefit from another non-error miscue, two nights after his inside-the-park home run at the expense of Pittsburgh’s reigning Cy Young Award winner, Paul Skenes.

“Just good stuff. The last two innings was awesome,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said.

Rallying Rockies 🤘 pic.twitter.com/EfhaFaeG5B

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 23, 2026

Colorado improved to 31-48. With one more win against the Red Sox this week, they will hit midseason on pace to avoid what would be their fourth-straight 100-loss season.

ROCKIES STARTER’S REPORT

Feltner delivered his third quality start in five appearances since returning from the injured list, overcoming three walks and a double in the first two innings to settle into a groove. He emerged unscathed from the first two frames, then dialed in and shut out the Red Sox for five innings.

“I was going out there, for whatever reason, just a little flat the first couple of innings,” Feltner told media after the game. “Just flipped a switch mentally and got more aggressive.”

From the second inning through the sixth inning, Feltner retired 13-consecutive Boston. batters. But the Red Sox finally broke through with two outs in the sixth, when Willson Contreras sliced a tailing a Feltner fastball down the right-field line, scoring Wilyer Abreu from first base to take a 1-0 lead. Abreu had reached base on a two-out walk.

Feltner then walked Jaren Duran on five pitches before allowing an RBI single to Caleb Durbin, but escaped further damage and completed his six-inning, two-run night.

BITS AND PIECES

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: Duran booted McCarthy’s line drive in left field in the ninth inning ensuring that the bases would clear and the winning run would score.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 8 — Consecutive hits by the Rockies to end the game. “I mean, that was incredible. Eight-straight pitches to end the ballgame there against two world-class pitchers?” Schaeffer said.

WHAT’S NEXT: Sean Sullivan makes his third major-league start on Tuesday night. Sonny Gray will get the call for Boston. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. MDT.

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