Conforto homers to spark 6-run inning and Giants beat skidding Rockies 8-6

DENVER (AP) Michael Conforto homered and singled in a six-run second inning that sent the San Francisco Giants past the struggling Colorado Rockies 8-6 on Wednesday night.

Blake Sabol and Conforto each finished with three of San Francisco's 13 hits. Jordan Hicks pitched five effective innings and the Giants won their second in a row after a four-game losing streak to secure the series win against Colorado.

After a 5-0 victory Tuesday over the Rockies, it was just the third time this season the Giants scored five or more runs in consecutive games.

“It’s very encouraging,” LaMonte Wade Jr. said. “We’ve been working hard at it, so to see it come to fruition the last two nights has been really good. We’ve got to keep building on that and come out strong tomorrow.”

Mike Yastrzemski had two hits, including a triple, and Sabol delivered an RBI double. San Francisco withstood a two-run homer by Elias Díaz off Camilo Doval with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

Sean Bouchard had three hits for the Rockies, who have lost four straight and nine of 10. They own the worst record in the majors at 8-28 and remain the only club without a series victory or successive wins this season.

“We hung in there,” manager Bud Black said. “We kept getting some guys on base, but the double play tonight sort of killed us three different times. That happens. That’s baseball.”

Charlie Blackmon added two hits and two RBIs, pushing his career RBI total to 760 and tying Nolan Arenado for fourth in Rockies history. Díaz had three RBIs.

Hicks (3-1) allowed three runs on seven hits and struck out five.

Peter Lambert (2-2) went three innings and permitted seven runs on nine hits.

The Giants matched their biggest inning of the season in the second, which began with Conforto’s leadoff homer on the first pitch he saw from Lambert.

Jung Hoo Lee helped keep the outburst going with an RBI double. Wade had a two-run single and Heliot Ramos, recalled from the minors earlier in the day, added an RBI single. Yastrzemski scored from third on Nick Ahmed’s sacrifice, beating the throw home from Lambert with a headfirst slide.

Brenton Doyle tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the second, but the Giants got another run in the third on Sabol’s RBI double.

“They hit some pretty good pitches. But overall, kept the ball in the ballpark here,” Hicks said. “Doyle put some good wood on it but besides that, we got an early lead and just tried to keep them at bay.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Giants: DH Jorge Soler was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right shoulder strain, retroactive to Sunday. Ramos was recalled from Triple-A to fill Soler's roster spot.

Rockies: 1B/OF Kris Bryant, sidelined the last three weeks by a lower back strain, has resumed baseball activities in the past couple of days. He has been taking swings in the batting cage and was on the field before the game taking grounders. ... OF Nolan Jones, who went on the 10-day IL effective April 29 with a lower back injury, is expected to resume baseball activities Thursday or Friday. Both are likely to have a minor league rehab assignment before returning to the Rockies.

UP NEXT

Giants RHP Keaton Winn (3-4, 4.41 ERA) is slated to pitch Thursday’s series finale against RHP Cal Quantrill (1-3, 4.31).

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