Major League Baseball
Colorado 6, NY Yankees 3
When: 3:10 PM ET, Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Where: Coors Field, Denver, Colorado
Temperature: 85°
Umpires: Home - Gabe Morales, 1B - Angel Hernandez, 2B - Chris Guccione, 3B - Ted Barrett
Attendance: 40093

DENVER -- Chad Bettis came back from a four-start slump, and DJ LeMahieu rebounded from a scary moment Wednesday as the Colorado Rockies beat the New York Yankees 6-3 to sweep their two-game series.

Nolan Arenado hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs as the Rockies equaled a season best with their fourth straight victory. They also won four straight from May 11-15.

Colorado went 5-1 on a just-concluded homestand, giving it eight wins in its past 10 games.

"I've been saying to our club for a while now that I feel like this team's going to get better as the year goes on, which has not been the trend here the last few years," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said.

The loss was the fourth straight for the Yankees, who were unable to muster an extra-base hit.

LeMahieu finished a home run shy of the cycle and drove in two runs while extending his hitting streak to nine games and raising his average to .323, the highest it has been since April 17. The second RBI came in the ninth when he tripled off hard-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman with two outs.

In LeMahieu's previous plate appearance in the sixth, Anthony Swarzak split the visor of LeMahieu's helmet with a pitch. LeMahieu went face-down but quickly got up and stayed in the game after being examined by head trainer Keith Dugger.

"I was pretty lucky it wasn't worse," LeMahieu said. "I was more in shock than anything, but (realized) 'Alright, everything's good.' "

After Charlie Blackmon singled, LeMahieu came up against Chapman and quickly regrouped from the beaning. Chapman twice reached 100 mph with his fastball before LeMahieu tripled on an 88 mph changeup with the count 1-2.

"I was just kind of thinking, 'How many times is that going to happen in my career?'" LeMahieu said. '"I think that's the first time ever. So I was like, 'I'm not going to let that shake what I've been doing the last couple weeks.'"

The last thing Bettis (5-5) wanted to do was repeat the recent past. He had worked fewer than five innings in three of his past four starts. During that span, he was 0-3 with a 11.57 ERA (16 1/3 innings, 21 earned runs) and had allowed 32 hits, including six homers, and seven walks with 11 strikeouts.

Bettis said he had been throwing "fastballs in fastball counts, and a lot of fastballs (were) leaking back over the plate. I would say that was the main issue."

Bettis had also not used his curveball and changeup enough to keep hitters off balance during his tailspin but incorporated those pitches more in his 89-pitch workday.

"The mix today was much better than it had been in the last four outings," Bettis said.

Bettis, who retired the first nine batters he faced, allowed three runs (two earned), seven singles and no walks with five strikeouts in six innings. He got 10 outs on ground balls, including the first two outs in the sixth.

The Yankees then strung together three singles, the last a run-scoring hit by Aaron Hicks that cut the Rockies' lead to 5-3. They had scored twice in the second on Didi Gregorious two-out single followed by catcher Tony Wolters' throwing error on a tapper hit near the mound.

Four relievers followed Bettis to the mound and retired the final nine batters in order. Carlos Estevez worked the ninth and got three ground outs for his third save and second in as many days.

Yankees starter Ivan Nova (5-4) worked five innings, ending his streak of pitching at least six innings in six straight starts. He allowed a season-high tying five runs and a season-high 10 hits.

Arenado's 20th homer came during a fateful fifth, a four-run inning that put the Rockies ahead 5-2.

Blackmon led off with a walk, stole second and scored on LeMahieu's single. Arenado, who singled home a run in the third, followed with a two-run homer, increasing his National League-leading RBI total to 57. Trevor Story doubled with one out and scored on Mark Reynolds' two-out single.

"Early on I was throwing my pitches where I wanted," Nova said. "I was trying to do the same thing I was doing the whole game. That inning I made some mistakes."

NOTES: Rockies SS Jose Reyes was designated for assignment on Wednesday when he was reinstated from the restricted list after serving a 51-game suspension for an alleged domestic violence incident. ... Rockies LF Gerardo Parra will be placed on the 15-day disabled list, manager Walt Weiss said. Parra underwent an MRI that showed a high left ankle sprain but no fracture after being injured Tuesday night in a collision with shortstop Trevor Story... Yankees RF Carlos Beltran had less swelling and more mobility in his left knee. Manager Joe Girardi said he hoped Beltran would be able to play Thursday. ... Yankees 1B Mark Teixera (right knee cartilage) said he hopes to play in two rehab games at Double-A Trenton and rejoin the Yankees on June 24 ... In a 13-10 loss on Tuesday, the Yankees scored the most runs in a defeat since a 13-11 loss on May 29, 2010, against Cleveland. They had won 72 straight games when scoring in double digits. It was their first such road loss since falling 16-11 at Boston on April 25, 2009.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
NY Yankees   Colorado
Ivan Nova Player Chad Bettis
Loss W/L Win
5.0 IP 6.0
5 Strikeouts 5
10 Hits 7
9.00 ERA 3.00
Hitting
NY Yankees   Colorado
Didi Gregorius Player DJ LeMahieu
2 Hits 3
1 RBI 2
0 HR 0
2 TB 6
.500 Avg 1.000
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
NY Yankees 7 0 7 .206 7 7 2 0 0 0
Colorado 13 1 20 .382 17 8 6 3 2 1