MILWAUKEE (AP) — Tomoyuki Sugano picked up his 10th win and Kyle Karros and TJ Rumfield each had two hits as the Colorado Rockies capitalized on a fast start to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-2 on Friday.
Sugano (10-4) struck out five over 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on a pair of homers — Christian Yelich’s 413-foot leadoff drive in the first inning and Brice Turang’s 434-foot blast in the sixth. Sugano was making his second start since coming off the injured list after missing three weeks due to back spasms.
Milwaukee brought the tying run to the plate after Andrew Vaughn and Jake Bauers started the ninth inning with consecutive singles. Jordan Romano regrouped from there by getting Joey Ortiz to pop up, striking out Gary Sánchez struck out and retiring Yelich on a fly to right.
Romano picked up his eighth save in 10 opportunities.
Although the Rockies (42-63) have the National League’s worst record, they’re just one win away from matching their total from a year ago, when they finished 43-119.
Colorado wasted no time taking charge against the NL Central-leading Brewers.
After Milwaukee’s Shane Drohan struck out Jake McCarthy to start the game, Karros and Cole Carrigg hit consecutive doubles to put the Rockies ahead for good. Hunter Goodman singled home Carrigg.
Colorado added single runs in the third and fourth innings to extend its lead to 4-1.
McCarthy led off the third with a triple and scored on a single by Karros, who was thrown out trying to reach second. Willi Castro led off the fourth with a single, stole second, reached third on a grounder and scored on Mickey Moniak’s sacrifice fly.
Drohan (5-4) struck out six but gave up a career-high five runs in six innings. He departed in the seventh after issuing a leadoff walk to Moniak, who scored when Rumfield greeted Grant Anderson with a pinch-hit double.
