Rockies answer Astros’ runs, have final edge for victory

Thairo Estrada homered, singled twice and drove in four runs and the Colorado Rockies held on to beat the Houston Astros 7-6 in Denver on Thursday.
Colorado leadoff hitter Tyler Freeman had two hits and extended his on-base streak to 18 games. Jordan Beck, Orlando Arcia and Brenton Doyle also had two hits each.
Juan Mejia (1-0) pitched one inning of relief and yielded two runs on three hits in getting the win. Starter Kyle Freeland allowed three runs, six hits and two walks with two strikeouts in six innings. Seth Halvorsen picked up his seventh save for the Rockies after allowing three hits and one run in the final 1 1/3 innings.
Houston cleanup hitter Cam Smith had three hits and three RBIs and Isaac Paredes, Jake Meyers and Jose Altuve contributed two hits each as those first four batters in the order went a combined 9 for 19 with five runs scored.
The Rockies broke a 5-5 tie in the seventh with two runs against reliever Jordan Weems (0-1). Freeman singled but was thrown out at home trying to score on Mickey Moniak’s double. Beck followed with an RBI single to put Colorado ahead, stole second and scored on Estrada’s single to center.
The Astros closed the gap in the ninth against Halvorsen. Meyers led off with a triple and scored on Altuve’s groundout to short.
Both teams scored twice in the first inning. Meyers and Altuve reached on one-out singles, Smith doubled to drive in Meyers and then Altuve scored on Christian Walker’s groundout to give Houston a 2-0 lead.
The Rockies tied it in their half when Estrada hit a two-out homer, his second of the season, that also scored Freeman.
The Astros went back in front on Paredes’ RBI double in the second, but the Rockies scored the tying run in the third when Kyle Farmer was hit by a pitch, Beck doubled and Estrada grounded out to bring in Farmer.
Colorado then took the lead in the fourth. Doyle and Arcia led off with singles, and both moved up a base on Austin Nola’s sacrifice bunt. Ryan Ritter followed with a bloop single over the pulled-in infield to make it 5-3 against Brandon Walter.
Walter left after allowing five runs on eight hits with no walks and three strikeouts in five innings.
Paredes singled in the top of the seventh and, with two outs, Altuve hit a bloop double to left. Smith followed with another bloop hit to center that fell for a triple and brought home both runners.