Gabriel Moreno and Nolan Arenado homered in a six-run first inning and the surging Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies 12-8 on Thursday in Denver to continue their drive for a National League wild-card berth.
James McCann also went deep for Arizona (85-74), which had a season-high 18 hits in its fifth straight win. The Diamondbacks moved within 2 1/2 games of Philadelphia for the third and final NL playoff berth. The Phillies hosted Milwaukee on Thursday night.
Arizona, which holds the tiebreaker over Philadelphia, is assured that at least the first game of its three-game series at San Diego beginning on Friday night will have postseason implications.
Geraldo Perdomo, Lars Nootbar and Arenado had three hits each and McCann and Pavin Smith finished with two hits apiece for the D-backs.
Cole Carrigg homered among his four hits, Kyle Karros and Zac Veen also homered and had two hits and Connor Norby and TJ Rumfield contributed two hits for Colorado (57-102), which had 17 hits.
Arizona sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning against right-hander Tanner Gordon. Moreno’s three-run homer started the scoring, Perdomo tripled, Smith singled and Arenado homered to cap the inning.
It was Arenado’s 29th home run of the season.
Arizona scored twice in the second on an RBI double from Ketel Marte and a run-scoring single by Perdomo. Smith had an RBI double in the fourth and scored on McCann’s single for a 10-0 advantage.
Gordon (1-6) allowed 10 runs on 12 hits in 4 1/3 innings.
D-backs starter Eduardo Rodriguez (16-7) allowed two runs on nine hits in six innings. The Rockies broke through against the left-hander when they loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth but managed just one run.
McCann hit his sixth home run leading off the sixth inning and Karros homered in the bottom of the frame, his 13th. Hunter Goodman added an RBI single in the seventh and Carrigg hit a three-run shot later in the inning, his 11th of the year, for a 12-6 deficit.
Veen hit a solo shot and Rumfield added an RBI double in the eighth.