Newfound discipline 'progress' for Rockies

DENVER -- The hits in a rally often come from the most accomplished hitters. So it stands to reason that in the Rockies’ six-run fourth inning -- the one that led them to a series-winning 6-5 victory over the Giants at Coors Field on Wednesday afternoon -- Charlie Blackmon and Raimel Tapia delivered two-run singles.

But to put a bright face on a baseball adage of woe: Oh (yeah), those bases on balls.

It was the Rockies’ second straight game with a six-run inning -- Blackmon’s three-run walk-off homer in the seventh cemented Tuesday night’s six-run seventh in an 8-6 victory. But Wednesday’s big inning was as notable for the non-swings as for the swings.

• Box score

Ryan McMahon before Blackmon’s hit, Matt Adams after and Alan Trejo with the bases loaded -- all off Giants starter Logan Webb, who departed after the four-pitch pass to Trejo -- kept the inning going with walks. There were no wild swings and not even an extra-base hit.

For a Rockies team that tends to be overaggressive, Tuesday’s controlled swings that led to Blackmon’s blast and Wednesday’s takes provided a blueprint for the offense.

“You’ve heard a lot of us talk about linking at-bats,” said McMahon, who finally has more walks this season (nine) than home runs (eight). “That’s kind of a perfect example, right?”

Coors Field is the velvet glove -- all soft and elegant -- complete with the iron fist. The extended flight of fly balls and the expansive outfield invite batters to swing, often regardless of where the ball is pitched. This temptation often leads to trouble at home, and way more often, it is a problem when the team travels. (The Rockies begin a three-game set Friday at St. Louis, where they will visit their former talisman, third baseman Nolan Arenado.)

Innings like Wednesday’s fourth are what the Rockies have met about, agonized over and aspired to deliver with consistency (which has been elusive) since they began playing in Denver in 1993 and moved from Mile High Stadium to Coors in 1995.

“That is progress,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “That is something that we’ve talked about as a group -- the getting-on-base component, the walk component. And when pitchers are trying to get you to expand the zone, especially with guys in scoring position, it's going to help long term if we do what we did today.”

Here’s a walk breakdown:

• McMahon loves to swing and has been connecting. But he has suddenly become judicious. He had one walk in his first 20 games, but he has eight in his past 11.

“Mac has good strike-zone awareness and plate discipline, and he’s combining that with being aggressive,” Black said. “But there are times when you have to take your walks when they're given to you. You can't expand the zone -- especially when you have a rally going. So that typifies what we're trying to get to.”

• Adams, who was brought in for his left-handed power and has been with the club less than a week, walked to reload the bases.

“Adams is a veteran player -- he’s been there,” Black said. “That was a good walk, a 3-2 walk [on the ninth pitch].”

• Trejo is a rookie who had a hit in the seventh inning on Tuesday. Those guys are supposed to be eager, maybe even overaggressive. But he walked on four pitches with the bases loaded to force Webb out of the game.

“We’ve seen that the last couple days overall, better at-bats, taking the walk and increasing our team on-base percentage,” Black said.

Jon Gray, who improved his home numbers to 4-0 with a 2.07 ERA after six innings of two-run ball (on Brandon Crawford’s first-inning homer), singled in a run off reliever Matt Wisler. Tapia added his two-run single to complete the flip from a two-run deficit to a 6-2 lead.

The lead survived Darin Ruf’s two-run homer off Tyler Kinley in the seventh and the iffy command of closer Daniel Bard, who fanned two and walked two in the ninth. An unearned run scored in the ninth when catcher Dom Nuñez threw to second on a steal attempt -- when the infielders were willing to concede the steal and didn’t cover the bag.

But the Rockies can set the foibles aside and point to their controlled approach.

“Any time you can score like that and score in bunches, it usually means a lot of guys are getting hits or having good at-bats,” McMahon said. “That definitely leads to some more confidence and hopefully some more runs.”