Chicago Cubs’ Javier Baez looks skyward as he crosses home plate after his solo home run in the 12th inning against the Colorado Rockies in Denver on Tuesday.
Javier Baez led off the 12th inning with a towering home run and the Chicago Cubs beat the Colorado Rockies 6-5 on Tuesday. Wellington Castillo also homered for the Cubs, who have won four of five.
Baez, a prized prospect called up before the game, played his first game in the big leagues with his family sitting behind home plate. He struck out in three of his first five at-bats before hitting Boone Logan’s first pitch of the 12th an estimated 414 feet into the Rockies’ bullpen.
‘’I faced him before and he threw me all curveballs,’’ Baez said. ‘’He’s got a good curveball so I wasn’t sitting on the curveball, I was trying to hit a fastball.’’
When he crossed home plate he pointed to his personal fan club and went back to the dugout where he was greeted with cheers.
‘’Everybody was going crazy,’’ he said.
Baez nearly had his first hit in the seventh when he a drove a ball hard to right field but it was caught to end the inning. He didn’t miss when he got a fastball in the 12th.
‘’He had a few strikeouts but it wasn’t for anxiousness,’’ Chicago manager Rick Renteria said. ‘’He didn’t seem anxious at all. He got the first pitch he can hit and drove it.’’
Hector Rondon (3-3) blew his fourth save but got the win and Carlos Villanueva picked up his second save.
Both teams scored a run in the 11th to extend the game.
Nolan Arenado homered and Logan (2-2) took the loss for the Rockies, who have dropped five straight.
Rockies starter Brett Anderson allowed just one hit through three innings but left after one pitch in the fourth due to back spasms.
‘’His back locked up and it doesn’t look too good now,’’ Rockies manager Walt Weiss said.
Franklin Morales came on and threw two scoreless innings before Castillo led off the sixth with his eighth home run of the season to cut Colorado’s lead to 3-1.
The shaky Colorado bullpen faltered in the seventh. Three relievers combined to walk six batters in the inning, three of which scored to give the Cubs a 4-3 lead.
Elsewhere, Alex Avila hit the game-tying single in the seventh and then hit the go-ahead home run in the top of the 12th inning as the Detroit Tigers outlasted the New York Yankees 4-3.
It was Avila’s eighth home run and first since July 12 at Kansas City.
After David Price allowed three runs and eight hits over 8-2/3 innings in his Detroit debut, Joba Chamberlain, Joakim Soria and Joe Nathan combined on 3-1/3 scoreless innings.
Center fielder Jon Jay looped a two-out RBI single to left-center in the bottom of the eighth to snap a tie and give the Cardinals a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox.
Lance Lynn tossed seven innings in a no-decision for the Cardinals (60-51) who stayed one game behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central.
Carlos Gomez drove in three runs and Gerardo Parra hit his first home run as a Brewer in Milwaukee’s 4-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants.
Brewers’ center fielder Gomez hit a two-run homer in the third inning, then drove in a third run in the fifth inning with a bunt single.
The Baltimore Orioles clubbed three home runs to power past the Toronto Blue Jays 9-3.
Catcher Caleb Joseph and second baseman Jonathan Schoop hit back-to-back shots in the fourth, while first baseman Chris Davis added a solo blast in the fifth to help the Orioles (64-48) extend their American League East division lead over the Blue Jays (60-54) to five games.