Before yesterday, no player in history had done ... this

DENVER -- More than 22,000 players have appeared in a Major League Baseball game. There are very few men living who can say they accomplished something that no other player in MLB history has.

Thanks to what he did on Saturday night at Coors Field, Brian Serven can.

“It was a good day,” said the 27-year-old catcher, for whom it all hadn’t quite sunk in as he stood at his locker after the game.

That’s an understatement. Serven launched a pair of two-run homers for his first two career hits to help the Rockies beat the Mets, 11-3, in the second game of their doubleheader after Colorado dropped the opener of the twin bill, 5-1.

The performance made Serven the only player in MLB history to have two multi-run homers in the same game for his first two career hits. And it made him only the second player in franchise history to hit home runs for each of his first two MLB hits, joining Trevor Story, who did so two months before the Rockies drafted Serven out of Arizona State in 2016.

Saturday was a day Serven had long dreamed of, and it was a long time coming. He had his ups and downs over five-plus Minor League seasons, but he made his big league debut Wednesday against the Giants, starting behind the plate and going 0-for-2. His callup was the result of a solid 2021 campaign and a strong start to this season for Triple-A Albuquerque -- in 96 plate appearances, he hit .273/.406/.506 with five homers.

“He was ready for this,” manager Bud Black said. “He played really well at Triple-A. And I think that’s the thing that stands out for me, is that the last couple of years, you could see him surging. And this year, it came together for him.”

It all came together for him Saturday night, too. With the game tied at 2 in the second inning, Serven dropped the bat head on a hanging slider from Mets starter Trevor Williams, sending it into the left-field seats for a two-run homer. Then in the Rockies' seven-run sixth, he broke the game open by lining another slider, this one from reliever Adonis Medina, into the front row of the left-field bleachers for another two-run shot.

If his exploits at the plate weren’t enough, Serven even threw out his first baserunner, nabbing J.D. Davis as he attempted to swipe second base in the top of the sixth. Serven’s throw was right on the bag.

“It’s pretty surreal,” Serven said. “… I think I just kept telling myself that it’s the same game. That’s kind of what Buddy and everybody was telling me, that it’s the same game that you’ve played since you were a little kid. So just keep doing it. And enjoy yourself.”

The game is the same, but the stage is much bigger. Serven’s even-keeled demeanor ensured the moment wouldn’t be too big for him.

“I’m really confident in my ability,” he said. “I have been for years. That’s why I went to Arizona State. That’s why I got drafted. That’s why I’ve continued to get better. With continual improvement, there’s a confidence in what you do and what you believe in. There’s that constant need and want to improve that helps me stay driven for more.”

As the media left his locker, Serven asked them, jokingly, to edit the video and audio of him to make him look good, despite teammate Yonathan Daza passing by with a sincere compliment: “That was a good answer!”

But Serven had already taken care of that with what he did on the field. Perhaps as an exclamation point to drive the notion home, Rockies great Vinny Castilla, now a special assistant to the general manager, walked over from across the room to embrace Serven with a hug.

“That was beautiful, man,” Castilla said to him. “Congratulations.”