PHOENIX — Madison Bumgarner pitched six effective innings, Josh Rojas had three RBIs, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies 9-2 on Saturday.
Bumgarner (5-8) gave up Kris Bryant's third homer in two games in the first inning, but was sharp after that. He allowed two runs on six hits and struck out five to pass Catfish Hunter (84th) and Dan Haren (83rd) on baseball’s all-time strikeout list with 2,014.
Jordan Luplow had a run-scoring single in Arizona's three-run first inning against Kyle Freeland (4-7) and hit a solo homer in the fifth. Rojas had a two-run double in the seventh inning and a run-scoring double in the eighth to finish with three of Arizona's 12 hits. Geraldo Perdomo added a two-run single.
Bumgarner has struggled early in starts in his third season in the desert, allowing 27 runs the first two innings of his first 17 starts. The left-hander looked like he might be in for another rough beginning when Bryant, the second batter he faced, launched a solo homer over the Diamondbacks' bullpen in left.
But Bumgarner then settled in, giving up Charlie Blackmon's run-scoring single in the third inning before striking out four of the final five batters he faced.
Freeland had even shakier start to his day.
The Colorado left-hander gave up a sacrifice fly to Christian Walker, Luplow's run-scoring single and another run on Cooper Hummel's groundout in the first inning.
Freeland retired 15 of the next 16 batters until Luplow hit a two-out solo homer in the sixth inning. He was lifted after a pair of one-out singles in the seventh inning and Rojas put Arizona up 6-2 with his two-run double.
Freeland allowed six runs on seven hits.
TRAINER'S TABLE
Rockies: 1B C.J. Cron was out of the lineup due to swelling in his left wrist after being hit in the fifth inning of Friday night's game. ... SS Jose Iglesias also was out after a collision with Arizona C Jose Herrera on Friday left him dizzy. He cleared concussion protocols and is not expected to be out long.
UP NEXT
Rockies RHP Germán Márquez (4-7, 5.90 ERA) is 3-1 with a 3.04 ERA his last four road starts heading into Sunday's series finale against Arizona RHP Tyler Gilbert (0-3, 6.86).
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