Blackmon keeps raking, breaks 58-year-old mark

DENVER -- Rockies slugger Charlie Blackmon was torn between record-breaking feats -- like his MLB-record 15 hits in a four-game series -- and occurrences he would rather never deal with again.

The 14-13 loss to the Padres -- the second time in the four-game set that the Rockies blew a ninth-inning lead and lost, creating a split -- topped the latter list.

“I’ve never really seen anything like those types of games,” Blackmon said. “I don’t know. It’s hard to compare it to anything. That’s pretty much all I’ve got on that.

“You can’t really enjoy it. You go out there, you work really hard. The last three games were five hours, four hours, five hours [3:31 of baseball plus 53 minutes caused by two delays]. It’s just really hard to go out there, play that much baseball at altitude. To end up a split, it’s disappointing.”

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The previous record for hits in a four-game series was 14 -- Buck Jordan of the Boston Braves against the Cardinals, July 17-18, 1934 (consecutive doubleheaders); and Bill White of the Cardinals against the Cubs, July 12-15, 1961.

Blackmon, who entered with four hits in each of the first three games, tied the record during the Rockies’ six-run bottom of the first with a leadoff homer and an RBI single as the 10th of 11 players to bat against Padres starter Nick Margevicius in the inning. The first inning came after a 15-minute delay during the top of the first because of a broken main irrigation line, which caused flooding in foul ground in right field.

Blackmon put himself alone with 15 hits in the four-game series in the sixth, by delivering -- oddly in the context of Sunday’s craziness -- the Rockies’ final run with an RBI single off Phil Maton.

Blackmon went 3-for-6 with one strikeout and flied out to to lead off the ninth against Padres closer Kirby Yates, who also retired Trevor Story and Nolan Arenado. The Padres had scored four in the top of the ninth, as the Rockies re-lived Friday’s nightmare, when they blew a six-run lead in the ninth (a club record) and lost in 12 innings, 16-12. Blackmon, by the way, homered in the bottom of the 12th.

All told, Blackmon homered three times in the series, and as the Rockies finished 4-3 in a homestand against the Cubs and Padres he went 21-for-37 (.568) with six home runs and 15 RBIs, plus a .568 on-base percentage and 1.216 slugging percentage for a video game cheat-code-worthy 1.784 OPS.

He may have felt awful, but the numbers were awesome.

“The beauty of Charlie is the consistency, day in and day out,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “That’s one of Charlie’s strengths, what he does each and every day to prepare to play. He’s one of the best I’ve seen. When you’re in a good spot, Charlie is able to maintain it -- which he has done for this stretch of games.”

Blackmon’s streak of four-hit games ended at three. It was the longest such run in the Majors since the Braves’ Rafael Furcal did it May 13-15, 2007. The only one longer in the modern era (since 1900) was four games, by Milt Stock of the Brooklyn Robins, June 30-July 3, 1925.

Blackmon’s leadoff homer, his fourth of the season, was the 34th of his career, which tied him with Ray Durham and Devon White for 10th all-time.