Montero, Bouchard ending season on positive note 

DENVER -- Elehuris Montero's youthful ups and downs earlier this season were maddening for the Rockies, so you can imagine how going down to Triple-A felt for Montero.

Sean Bouchard -- who, like Montero, debuted in the Majors last season -- spent most of this season wishing he had some of Montero’s problems. But Bouchard was largely forgotten while recovering from surgery to repair a ruptured left distal biceps tear he sustained in March.

Both were in their happy place in the third inning Thursday night. Montero launched a two-run homer and Bouchard followed immediately with a solo shot during the Rockies’ 14-5 victory over the Dodgers at Coors Field.

The Rockies are 58-101 in a 2023 season that couldn’t end soon enough for many of their fans. However, Montero, who began the year as the starting third baseman but has transitioned to first base, and Bouchard don’t want it to end. So they're both headed to play some more in the offseason.

Montero will play with Águilas in the Dominican Republic. Bouchard, who has homered in consecutive games for the first time, will play for Hermosillo in Mexico. Both are ending the Major League season on the upswing after some tough times.

Since being recalled from Albuquerque on July 25, Montero has posted a .279/.337/.479 slash line with seven homers and 24 RBIs in 47 games.

“Nobody wants to be in Triple-A,” said Montero, 25, with bullpen catcher Aaron Muñoz interpreting. “But you just embrace it all.”

Bouchard, 27, excited the Rockies with his .454 on-base percentage and .954 OPS in a 27-game sample late last season. The Rockies wanted to see if Bouchard could build on that, but after his injury, the club signed veteran Jurickson Profar.

The Rockies released Profar on Aug. 27. Bouchard was a September call-up, but others were playing ahead of him. This week, Bouchard’s swing arrived while Kris Bryant’s illness kept him out of the lineup.

“It’s a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league -- any professional sport,” Bouchard said. “I don’t think there’s any sort of extra motivation. If people were saying this or that or nothing at all, I’m motivated, regardless.”

Charlie Blackmon led off the bottom of the first with his 41st career leadoff homer (10th in history), and Brenton Doyle tied the game at 3 with a two-run double in the second.

In the third, Ezequiel Tovar doubled off Dodgers starter Ryan Yarbrough and scored on Nolan Jones’ grounder. Then Montero and Bouchard lashed their, homers 427 feet and 458 feet, respectively. It was part an offense that matched a season-high for runs (Aug. 18 against the White Sox) and set a season-high with 18 hits.

“It’s good to see some young guys contribute,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “Doyle had a big night, and it was good for Sean -- it’s been a tough year for Sean. Montero homered. Everybody got a base hit. There were a lot of good things offensively, for sure.”

To build the type of lineup that links at-bats and has danger spots throughout, the Rockies need players like Montero and Bouchard to produce.

Montero, who came from the Cardinals in the Nolan Arenado trade before the 2021 season, homered 15 times in 35 Triple-A games this year and has been a big power producer in the Minors.

While strikeouts are high -- 106 in 272 at-bats -- he has made baby steps toward laying off the down-and-out slider that has been his issue. Thursday night’s homer was his eighth in the Majors this year, and he is confident his swing will produce power in the future.

“Honestly, it’s just doing the same thing I’ve done in Triple-A and, more importantly, putting a good swing and making solid contact,” he said.

Bouchard, a right-handed-hitting ninth-round pick out of UCLA in 2017, earned his spot with the quality of his at-bats, his occasional power and ability to play the infield and outfield corners. After his return, he didn’t initially have many opportunities to remind the Rockies of his attributes.

“I was just trying to find a way to replicate the velocity and timing as best I could,” Bouchard said. “When you play every day, you can get away with just rolling into games because you’re getting your timing in the game. It’s an inexact science, but I’m trying to leave no stone unturned as far as being as prepared as possible.”