Valaika's 1st hit since April a game-changer

DENVER -- After nearly two full months of darkness, maybe Pat Valaika didn’t catch the striking amber-and-gold Colorado sunset beyond the left-field wall at Coors Field. Nonetheless, when he saw the ball land in the bleachers, he became like a man seeing sunshine for the first time in nearly two months.

Valaika’s two-run, pinch-hit homer -- his first Major League hit since April 8 -- touched off an eight-run fifth inning that ultimately gave the Rockies what they hadn’t experienced in more than nine months. The 13-9 victory ended a 12-game losing streak against the Dodgers, a team the second-place Rockies trail by 12 games in the National League West.

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“Honestly, I had a little moment of, ‘Oh, yeah. This is what it felt like,’” Valaika said of his homer, one of three off Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu. “That was fun.”

As a rookie in 2017, Valaika had 16 pinch-hit RBIs -- most since the rookie classification was instituted in 1958. But forgive Valiakia if it felt like his stroke had been missing since ‘58. He hit .156 with two homers in 122 at-bats last year. This year he has been sent twice to Albuquerque, where his performance earned him Triple-A All-Star status. He has the bat speed to handle anyone’s fastball, but in the Majors fell into an abyss of being early on offspeed pitches and not having the timing for the heater.

Valaika said there was plenty of support. He sat with hitting coach Dave Magadan in San Francisco. He did himself a favor by trying “to avoid looking at the scoreboard whenever possible … I’m not going to, in one game, hit .300 all of a sudden.”

And on Friday, he crushed a first-pitch changeup to start the game-turning rally.

Of course, there had been a lot of on-field fun for the Rockies lately, but almost as often, there was postgame disappointment. The Rockies hadn’t beaten the Dodgers since Sept. 8, and lost the first seven matchups this season. The last four losses came in the Dodgers’ final at-bat. And there was some fear that Valaika’s special night would be for naught Friday.

The Rox gained a 10-5 lead after the fifth -- during which Valiaka had two hits, David Dahl added a two-run homer and the visitors committed three errors. But Max Muncy’s three-run shot off Carlos Estevez in the sixth, and Muncy’s RBI infield single off the glove of first baseman Daniel Murphy (who had two first-inning errors) sparked concern that Valaika’s special night would be ruined. A three-run eighth, with Murphy’s sacrifice fly and Chris Iannetta’s two-run double, allowed the Rockies to be all smiles postgame.

And the guys smiled for Valaika. That was true even of Nolan Arenado, who had a two-run first-inning homer and two doubles off Ryu -- to improve his career average against the Dodgers standout to .608 (14-for-23, four doubles, four homers).

“Pat was a huge impact for us in ‘17 and he’s a great clubhouse guy,” said Arenado, who has been playing through pain since fouling two pitches off his left foot in the last week and a half, and doing it yet again in the sixth inning Friday. “We love having him here. I was super happy for him. We were all jumping up and down. It was a huge swing. We needed that, too. We’re happy he’s here. We’re happy he broke out of it in a big way.”

Ryu also gave up the Valaika and Dahl homers. The inning came back around to Valaika, who batted second and 11th out of 13 batters in the frame.

“He’s been frustrated,” Rockies manager Bud Black said of Valaika. “But he keeps coming every day with an attitude that it’s going to change, which is awesome. He doesn’t feel sorry for himself. It’s a tough role to be in, but we couldn’t be happier for Pat -- teammates, coaching staff -- because we know what this guy is all about.”

It was an odd night -- the game was delayed 19 minutes in the seventh by lightning, but little rain -- at a strange time.

As seems to be the case each home game, Charlie Blackmon (three singles) set another record. It was his sixth home game of at least three hits, which surpassed a record established five times -- last by the Cubs’ Bill Madlock at Wrigley Field, June 5-16, 1975.

The Rockies became the first team in the modern era (since 1900) to both score and give up eight runs in five straight home games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Boston Beaneaters and the Chicago Colts each had streaks of six home games in which they scored and allowed eight or more runs in 1894.

Meanwhile, Valaika can be happy his 0-for-30 streak goes down as the second-longest for a position player in club history (to Desi Relaford’s 0-for-33 in 2005).

“If I’m living in the past, or living in my last game or last season or any of that, that’s not going to do any good for me,” Valaika said.

He can keep ignoring the numbers, although he can smile that they got just a little sunnier in one inning Friday night.