Goldschmidt homers as D-Backs rout Rockies

Paul Goldschmidt and Chris Owings hit three-run homers, Zack Godley threw well into the eighth inning, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies 10-3 on Thursday.

Goldschmidt finished with three hits and four RBIs to increase his season total to 64, tops in the majors.

Arizona took two of three in the NL West matchup and is now tied with Colorado for second place in the division behind the Dodgers. The Diamondbacks have won 12 of 14 and are a seasonhigh 19 games above .500.

Godley gave up a home run to Charlie Blackmon to lead off the first inning, but shut down the Rockies from there.

Blackmon drew a walk in the third, then Godley erased him with a double-play ball to end the inning. He didn’t allow a hit after Nolan Arenado’s oneout single in the first and retired 19 of the next 20 batters before Raimel Tapia and Pat Valaika singled and doubled to lead off the eighth.

Godley (3-1) allowed three runs on four hits and struck out eight in seven-plus innings. He also helped himself with an RBI single in the eighth. Corey Knebel broke Aroldis Chapman’s modern-era record for consecutive games by a reliever with a strikeout at a season’s start, fanning a batter for the 38th straight game and closing out the win. Knebel struck out Josh Bell on a foul tip leading off the ninth.

Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier each hit two-run homers in the first inning, Jose Quintana cruised behind the extra support, and the Chicago White Sox beat Minnesota after a raindelayed start of 4 hours and 50 minutes that was the longest in Twins history. Josh Reddick homered and scored four runs, Jake Marisnick and Marwin Gonzalez each went deep and the Houston Astros beat the Oakland Athletics. The major league-leading Astros completed a four-game sweep with their 10th straight victory in Oakland and their 15th win in 16 games against the A’s overall.

The Chicago Cubs have demoted struggling slugger Kyle Schwarber to Triple-A Iowa. Schwarber, the fourth overall pick in the 2014 amateur draft, is batting just .171 with 12 homers and 28 RBIs in 64 games. There was no immediate announcement of a corresponding move.