Arenado, Story key Rockies in rout
DENVER — Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story homered, Kyle Freeland pitched effectively into the seventh, and the Rockies beat the Diamondbacks 10-3 on Thursday.
David Dahl had three hits and two RBIs to help the NL Westleading Rockies maintain their 11⁄ game advantage over the second-place Dodgers and push their lead over the third-place Diamondbacks to 41⁄ games.
The Dodgers beat the Cardinals 9-7 in St. Louis.
Diamondbacks right-hander Clay Buchholz was scratched from the start because of tightness in his right elbow. Matt Koch (5-5) started in his place and allowed four runs on eight hits in three innings.
A.J. Pollock homered for the Diamondbacks, who fell to 3-12 in September. They lost 5-4 on Wednesday night when DJ LeMahieu hit a two-run homer off Yoshihisa Hirano in the ninth inning.
Freeland (15-7) allowed only two hits and one run through six innings before giving up a triple to Steven Souza Jr. and a double to Nick Ahmed in the seventh. Freeland left after manager Bud Black and trainer Keith Dugger came to the mound.
Yencey Almonte gave up an RBI double to Ketel Marte that made it 5-3. The Rockies responded with five runs in the bottom of the inning.
After Arenado and Pollock traded solo home runs, Freeland hit an RBI double over Pollock’s head in center to drive in Arenado and give the Rockies a 2-1 lead.
Story’s home run in the third made it 4-1 and Freeland came through again in the fourth. He laid down a bunt single down the third base line to lead off and then scored on Dahl’s double to the corner in left.