Colorado Rockies whip Philadelphia Phillies in Denver, push for playoff berth

Jon Gray tossed seven strong innings, Gerardo Parra had three hits, and the streaking Colorado Rockies continued their late-season playoff push with a 10-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Denver on Monday night.

Trevor Story had two doubles in his return to the lineup for Colorado, which stayed in the hunt in the National League West. The Rockies (86-70) have won four straight and kept the pressure on the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers (88-69) maintained their 1 1/2- game lead over Colorado with a win in Arizona later on Monday night. However, the Rockies picked up a game on the St. Louis Cardinals for the second wild-card spot. The Cardinals (87-70) lost to Milwaukee later on Monday and lead the Rockies by just one-half game.

Colorado finishes the regular season with seven home games against Philadelphia (78-78) and Washington (79-78), hoping to overtake Los Angeles to win its first division title. The homestand started well with a rout of the fading Phillies.

Gray (12-8), who was initially scheduled to pitch Tuesday, had his start moved up a night when Tyler Anderson was scratched with shoulder soreness. He responded by allowing just four hits and striking out seven. He held Philadelphia scoreless until Rhys Hoskins hit his 33rd homer in the top of the seventh.

By then, Colorado had built a comfortable lead with two big innings. The Rockies scored first with Nolan Arenado's RBI single off Zach Eflin (11-8) with one out in the third. After Story struck out, Parra singled home another run. Three straight walks -- including one to Gray -- and a wild pitch made it 5-0.

Colorado struck again in the fourth inning. DJ LeMahieu led off with another walk and David Dahl hit his 11th home run to make it 7-0. Story doubled and Parra drove him in with a single.

Parra made it 9-0 in the sixth when he scored on a throwing error on Ian Desmond's single, and Garrett Hampson had an RBI double in the eighth inning to give Colorado its final run.

--Field Level Media