ATLANTA — Raimel Tapia hit a tiebreaking single off A.J. Minter in the 10th inning, scoring Colton Welker from third base and lifting the Colorado Rockies to a 3-2 road victory over the Atlanta Braves late Wednesday.
Atlanta’s NL East lead was trimmed to 3½ games over Philadelphia as the Braves attempt to win the division for the fourth straight year.
Robert Stephenson earned his first save in two chances in the bottom of the 10th, striking Austin Riley, hitting Adam Duvall with a pitch, striking out Travis d’Arnaud and getting Dansby Swanson to pop up.
The game was played throughout in a steady drizzle, and the grounds crew spent much of the night between innings pouring dirt and raking the infield, mound and home plate area.
Welker, who began the 10th on second base for Colorado, advanced on a groundout and crossed the plate when Tapia drove the ball into left field. Minter (2-6) took the loss. Carlos Estévez (3-4) faced five batters in the ninth to earn the win.
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The Rockies scored twice in the fifth to take a 2-1 lead against Braves starter Huascar Ynoa.
The Braves took a 1-0 lead in the second when Riley singled, advanced on Swanson’s single and scored on Eddie Rosario’s single. Rosario’s 11th homer sailed into the right-field seats and tied it at 2-all in the fifth.
Ynoa, who gave up two runs and four hits with two walks and eight strikeouts in 4 ⅔ innings, is winless in his last six starts since returning Aug. 17 from the injured list but has a 3.58 ERA during that stretch.
The Braves had to settle for the losing end of a two-game sweep as Thursday afternoon’s game was postponed due to a soggy field caused by rain. A makeup date was not immediately announced.
The start of the game was pushed back almost 2 hours in hopes the wet field would become playable. There was more rain Thursday morning.
The Braves and Rockies are not scheduled to play again this season and don’t have matching days off. Each team wanted to play the game as scheduled Thursday, if possible, though they also had to consider travel plans for today’s games.
Atlanta is off for a three-game series in San Francisco, while Colorado was due to start a set in Washington on Friday.
Braves manager Brian Snitker, Rockies manager Bud Black, Rockies interim general manager Bill Schmidt and Braves chairman Terry McGuirk met with umpire CB Bucknor, Braves field director Ed Mangan and others on the field before the decision was made to postpone the game.
A possible makeup date if necessary could be Oct. 4, the day after the last scheduled game of the regular season.
In a matchup of division leaders, Atlanta is set to throw Ian Anderson (7-5, 3.61) today against the Giants.