Cave's clutch 1st Rockies HR celebrated with ... silence

DENVER – The Rockies' lineup wasn’t exactly explosive for Thursday’s finale against the Brewers, but they found enough firepower to blast past the Brewers for a 4-3 victory and a series split in the four-game set. Jake Cave's tiebreaking homer in the 6th -- his first dinger of the year -- proved to be the difference.

“I hit a big league homer for the Colorado Rockies, and there's a ton of kids that that's their dream come true,” Cave said. “I've done it now for my third team [Twins, Phillies], and they can't take that away from me.”

Charlie Blackmon lit the fuse in the first frame, lacing a leadoff single to left and advancing on a sac fly from Ezequiel Tovar, then scoring on Ryan McMahon’s ground-rule double to center.

Blackmon kept the momentum moving with a broken-bat two-run hustle double in the second. By going for the extra base, Blackmon drew the throw from right, allowing Sam Hilliard to follow Michael Toglia home.

“Sam was running really hard when the ball was hit,” manager Bud Black said. “He kept going and [third-base coach Warren Schaeffer] did a great job of sending Sam when the relay throw came back to second. That's instinctual by the third-base coach.”

Cal Quantrill has been the Rockies' most consistent starter, but he faltered uncharacteristically in the fourth, walking the bases loaded, then yielding a two-out single to Andruw Monasterio that brought in two runs.

“I see my job as giving the team a chance to win every fifth day,” Quantrill said. “Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard. Today was exceptionally hard. I really did not have very good stuff. But [I pitched] my 'C' game, and the team gets a win. It’s hard not to be excited about that. There are 10 things I would have changed today, but in the end, we won, so I did my job.”

The Brewers tied the game in the sixth with a one-out walk and a run-scoring double from Jackson Chourio off reliever Anthony Molina.

The Rockies bounced back in the bottom of the inning, reclaiming the lead on Cave's 430-foot homer to center.

“He's got a lot of playing time [recently],” Black said of the veteran. “He's making the most of it. He knows how to play. He brings energy every day. He's great in the dugout and in the clubhouse. He's gritty, and today he squared the ball up.”

When he returned to the dugout after his trip around the bases, Cave got the silent treatment from his teammates before they finally erupted in celebration for the spirited clubhouse leader.

“I was so pumped up, I didn't know what was happening at first,” Cave said. “I ran down the steps and I was expecting [a big reaction], and then I started realizing what they're doing. It's cool, it's fun.”

The silent treatment is usually reserved for rookies, not a 31-year-old veteran of seven big league seasons, but that tells you something about what his teammates think of him.

“I want the guys to mess around with me, because I'm doing the same thing,” Cave said. “I'm cracking jokes on the younger guys, older guys, whatever. [I wouldn’t want them to] think they couldn't joke around with me and have fun with me as a teammate. I like it. I take it as compliment.”

Cave’s game and his teammate’s reaction to it speaks to his presence in the clubhouse and the dugout, whether he’s in the lineup or not.

“He's got such a great sense of humor and personality that [McMahon] wanted to have a little fun with Cave,” Black said. “Mack made that call, and we went along with him.”

It was his performance on the field that made the difference Thursday, coming through in the clutch with the spark the Rockies needed to get through the final three innings.

“That’s what I want to do,” Cave said. “The energy you bring is something that you can control. But to have my baseball ability show up, I feel really good. My swing feels really good. I feel like I'm playing good baseball.”

The Rockies bullpen -- well-rested after 4 1/3 innings of relief from Peter Lambert Wednesday night -- locked things down with three scoreless innings from Tyler Kinley and Jalen Beeks.

“Those guys at the end, Kinley and Beeks, veteran pitchers, closed down a very good team that's in first place,” Black said. “So that was a good win for us.”