Rockies tie franchise scoring record in 20-7 win over Red Sox

DENVER (AP) — Brenton Doyle’s first career grand slam was one of four home runs hit by Colorado, and the Rockies tied a franchise record for runs scored in a 20-7 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday.

Ezequiel Tovar homered and singled twice, extending his hitting streak to 11 games with his first-inning homer. Jacob Stallings also homered, Brendan Rodgers had four hits and Kris Bryant had three singles for the Rockies.

Cal Quantrill (7-7) pitched six solid innings as Colorado won two of three games against the struggling Red Sox. Boston lost five of its first six games after the All-Star break.

The Red Sox used four relievers to complete seven innings, and infielder Dominic Smith pitched the eighth, working a clean inning on eight pitches.

After the game, Boston announced that manager Alex Cora had agreed to a three-year contract extension through the 2027 season.

“I’m just happy that we reached an agreement and everyone can focus on what really matters,” Cora said.

Boston committed a season-high four errors that led to six unearned runs. Three of those errors came when Nick Pivetta was on the mound. Pivetta (4-7), who entered Wednesday with a 13.85 ERA in four career starts against the Rockies, allowed eight runs, seven earned, in 2 2/3 innings.

“I didn’t have my best stuff,” Pivetta said. “The breaking pitches weren’t as breaking as I wanted them to be and they were willing to put barrels on the baseballs.”

The benches and bullpens opened up in the fourth inning when Reese McGuire and Quantrill exchanged words. McGuire took exception when Quantrill raised his fist after getting him out on a fly ball to end the fourth inning and the players had to be separated.

Things calmed down without incident or expulsion.

“I’ve known Reese since we were on the (Pittsburgh) Pirates and I knew Cal wasn’t yelling at Reese at first,” said catcher Jacob Stallings, who stepped between McGuire and Quantrill. “I just wanted to calm things down before things got too crazy.”

Colorado led 5-1 after the second inning, jumped to an 8-1 lead on Stallings’ three-run home run in the third inning and scored five times in the fourth inning. Ryan McMahon, who had missed the last two games with a sore hand, hit a two-run home run, his 15th, to restart the comeback.

Jarren Duran hit a solo home run in the fifth, his 13th, and drove in two more runs with a triple in the ninth. Rafael Devers had three hits for Boston.

Doyle hit his 17th home run off former teammate Chase Anderson in the sixth inning, capping a six-run inning. Five of those runs were unearned.

“It’s back-to-back wins in the series,” Stallings said. “We’re playing well.”

FOLLOWING

Red Sox: Right-handed pitcher Brayan Bello (10-5, 5.27 ERA) opens a three-game home series against the New York Yankees on Friday night.

Rockies: Left-handed pitcher Kyle Freeland (2-3, 5.63 ERA) begins a 10-game road trip against the San Francisco Giants on Friday night. Freeland is 2-0 with a 1.95 ERA in six starts since being activated from the 60-day injured list.