Noah Arenado homers twice, drives in seven as Rockies beat Giants
DENVER (AP) — Nolan Arenado's frustrating start to the season ended with a career night at the plate.
Arenado homered twice, doubled and singled to drive in a career-high seven runs, rookie Trevor Story had two triples and the Colorado Rockies tied a franchise record with 12 extra-base hits, beating the San Francisco Giants 10-6 on Wednesday night.
The Rockies set a team record with four triples. Story had three of Colorado's 18 hits.
Arenado came into the game hitting just .222 after a torrid spring training. He broke out of a weeklong slump by doubling his home run total a night after Jeff Samardzija dominated the Rockies.
"I know I can play at this level and I've always had confidence in myself," said Arenado, who hit 42 home runs last season. "Obviously it's never fun to scuffle or not produce for your team. I was working hard, working on what I've got to do to get better and obviously today was a great day."
Arenado was one RBI shy of the club mark done four times. He hit a two-run homer in the third inning and added a three-run shot in the eighth that broke open a one-run game.
"It's a matter of time," manager Walt Weiss said. "He's a great player."
This was the third time the Rockies have had 12 extra-base hits and the first time since July 30, 2010, against the Chicago Cubs.
San Francisco starter Jake Peavy (0-1) allowed a franchise-high 10 of those extra-base hits. It is the most allowed by a pitcher since Curt Schilling gave up 10 for Boston on Aug. 10, 2006, against Kansas City.
"The stuff was there, execution was just simply poor," Peavy said. "Just hate giving the team that kind of hill to climb."
Chris Rusin (1-0) threw 2 1/3 innings to get the win.
Giants rookie Trevor Brown followed Tuesday's two-homer game with two more hits in place of catcher Buster Posey, who sat out his second straight game with a bruise on his right instep.
Story nearly hit two more homers but was kept in the park by the newly raised fence in right-center field and settled for triples each time. His first one hit low on the fence in the third and he scored on Arenado's double.
Story's second drive nearly cleared the screen in the sixth. He looked like he was going to try for an inside-the-park homer, but he put on the brakes after rounding third when coach Stu Cole gave him the stop sign. He scored on Carlos Gonzalez's infield single that made it 7-5.
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He took some good-natured ribbing from his teammates when he didn't clear the fence that was raised 8 feet, 9 inches before the start of the season.
"Just because they hit the fence that weren't normally there I got a lot of grief," said Story, who raised his average to .343. "People telling me I don't have backside pop. I guess I don't right now. That's all right."
The Giants got one back in the eighth on Brandon Belt's solo home run off reliever Miguel Castro. It was just the second hit allowed by Castro in five appearances.
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Rockies starter Jordan Lyles was an out away from completing five innings and qualifying for the win, but Weiss pulled him after the Giants rallied to make it 6-5. San Francisco had a runner on first and Belt coming up, so Weiss went with the left-hander Rusin to play the matchup.
"I never want to go get a pitcher when he's one out away from a win, I just didn't feel good about the Belt matchup," Weiss said.
Rusin struck out Belt looking and then threw two more perfect innings.
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