McMahon's river shot part of Rockies history made in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH -- Ryan McMahon didn’t immediately look beyond the right-field bleachers at PNC Park on Friday night. He didn’t have to. His sixth-inning leadoff home run in the Rockies’ 3-2 victory over the Pirates bounced into the Allegheny River, he was sure.

Instead, he looked toward his happy dugout to take in the second pleasant noise -- with the first being the smash of his bat against a changeup from Martín Pérez.

• Facts & figures on the other Allegheny River HRs

“I looked right in there,” McMahon said. “That’s my favorite part about hitting a no-doubter homer is getting to look into the dugout.”

McMahon became the 49th player to accomplish the feat at the park near the confluence, where the Allegheny and Monongahela form the Ohio River. Only Hall of Famer Todd Helton accomplished it for the Rockies on May 4, 2001. Later Friday, the Pirates’ Oneil Cruz, who had done it before, made it 72 river homers with a two-run shot as the Pirates threatened to ruin the Rockies’ night in the ninth inning.

But after the scare, the Rockies could enjoy McMahon’s history note, as well as a club history-worthy start from right-handed pitcher Cal Quantrill -- 7 2/3 scoreless innings and nine strikeouts against three hits, no walks and a hit batter.

They also ended some negative history:

• The Rockies snapped the Modern Era (since 1900) record for trailing at some point in their first 31 games of the season (the previous mark was 28 games in 1910 by the St. Louis Browns).

• The 31 games of being behind at some point, at any point of a season, shattered the franchise record of 30 games, June 15-July 20, 1998.

The Rockies, still in the worst start in their history at 8-24, had lost five straight. A Miami team that held a worse record before the Rockies came to town had freshly swept them in three games, with two ending in galling, extra-inning fashion.

On Friday, thanks to McMahon’s fifth homer of the season and RBI singles behind it by Elehuris Montero and Brendan Rodgers, the Rockies could use the term “all wet” -- and smile about it.

"It's pretty cool, man," McMahon said. "Obviously, it's the goal of every hitter when you come here. You really juice one, you want to see it go in there. It just felt good to get a win, honestly. To do it in a winning effort always feels better."

When reminded of the futility records, manager Bud Black said, “Thanks for reminding me. I’ll sleep a little better, because I haven’t been sleeping well at all.”

But on Friday he could close his eyes and remember McMahon’s dream homer.

“I saw it off the bat, and I lost it,” Black said. “Soon as he hit it, I knew it was out of the stadium. Our bench erupted. When you see something majestic like that, it’s pretty cool.

“When you have a swing like McMahon -- a majestic swing, a beautiful swing and there’s contact and it goes like that – it’s magical. It’s awesome. He crushed it.”

Quantrill became the third starter in Rockies history to pitch at least seven innings with nine strikeouts and no walks. Others were Jon Gray on Sept. 17, 2016 in a home shutout of the Padres and Germán Márquez on April 14, 2019 in a road shutout of the Giants.

Quantrill and the Rockies had to sweat out the result, as the offense stopped after the sixth and Cruz’s one-out homer in the ninth off Jalen Beeks narrowed the lead to one run. Fresh in memory was Tuesday, when the Rockies built a five-run first-inning lead, didn’t add, and imploded in the ninth of an eventual 7-6 loss in 10 innings. But Beeks fanned Connor Joe and Jared Triolo to end the game.

Quantrill’s win was just the second by a Rockies starter this season. The 32-game wait for a second starter win easily smashed the previous club mark, 13 in 2005.

Quantrill executed three straight quality starts before yielding six runs in five innings against the Astros in a loss in Mexico City on Saturday. This time, Quantrill was sharp and catcher Jacob Stallings was attuned.

“‘Stall’ had them back and forth all day,” Quantrill said. “I commanded the fastball better than I had this year and the splitter I didn’t have to lean on it, so I could use it in better counts.”

Unlike the baseball McMahon hit, the Rockies insist they aren’t being drowned by the rough first month-plus. A couple more droughts are wrapped around their backs like primates: They’ve not won a series, and they’ve not won two straight games all season.

“Day by day, man, that’s going to happen eventually,” McMahon said.