Rockies earn rousing sweep with 'complete win'
DENVER -- The music reverberated through the ground floor of Coors Field on Thursday afternoon, emanating from the home clubhouse and occasionally garnished with the sound of jubilant players hollering and applauding.
The celebratory atmosphere was something the Rockies badly needed after losing 20 games in the month of April for the first time in franchise history and beginning the 2023 campaign with a .355 winning percentage through 31 games, tied with the inaugural 1993 club for the second-lowest in franchise history.
The current group needed something to lift it out of the dense and debilitating fog of ever-thinning pitching depth, poor defense and a malaise at the plate. But moments like that are earned, not given.
The Rockies earned this moment by scoring 12 runs in a Sunday victory over the D-backs and then capping off a sweep of the Brewers with a 9-6 comeback win on Thursday. Trailing 4-0 as late as the seventh inning, Colorado’s offense came alive to score four runs in that frame before adding five more in the eighth.
“It was a complete win,” manager Bud Black said. “[Was it] the biggest win of the year? It’s up there.”
For a team that had seen uncharacteristically poor defense, particularly on the infield, carry over from 2022 into ’23, and one whose offense entered Thursday’s contest ranked 29th in MLB with a 77 wRC+, this was a game that would be framed and hung in manager Bud Black’s office if it had been a piece of art.
Beginning with a diving catch in left field by Jurickson Profar in the first inning, the Rockies’ defense shined as it hadn’t in any other game this season. Immediately following Profar’s play, rookie shortstop Ezequiel Tovar snared a tough one-hopper on the backhand to throw out Willy Adames at first base.
With Christian Yelich on third and two outs in the third, Rowdy Tellez hit a sharp ground ball wide of first base, but C.J. Cron made a full-extension dive to his right to glove it and toss to starter Connor Seabold covering the bag to end the threat.
In the fifth, Tovar was at it again, making a tough over-the-shoulder, snow-cone catch in shallow center field. And in the eighth, third baseman Mike Moustakas showed that even at 34, he can flash the leather, making a spectacular diving grab to his left to throw out Victor Caratini.
“[Infield coach Warren Schaeffer] brought the boys together and kind of ran through how we were doing,” Moustakas said. “We made some changes, some adjustments to positioning and things like that. And overall, just being more ‘baseball player-ish,’ not playing too much into the numbers and getting a lot more athletic on the field.”
The stellar defense kept the Rockies in the game while Seabold, making his first start with the club, gave his team what it needed, going five innings and allowing three runs on seven hits with no walks and one strikeout. The three runs came on three solo homers, but by not issuing a single free pass, the 27-year-old right-hander limited what Brewers bats could accomplish with the long ball.
“I mentioned to him about Catfish Hunter,” Black said. “Catfish Hunter said solo homers don’t beat you.’”
They didn’t beat the Rockies on Thursday, as the offense surged late after being held to three hits over the first six innings. Moustakas opened the seventh with a single, which was followed by an Alan Trejo bunt single and a two-run double by Tovar, who continues to hit well after a slow start. Over his last seven games, Tovar is batting .333 with three doubles, a triple and a homer.
Tovar later scored on a balk by Brewers reliever Joel Payamps, and the Rockies tied the game on an Elias Díaz sacrifice fly. In the eighth, Colorado stormed ahead with five more runs, highlighted by a go-ahead pinch-hit single by Harold Castro, taking home a resounding win prior to a thunderstorm moving in over the ballpark.
The victory -- and the sweep, which was the Rockies’ first in 38 series dating back to June 2022 -- couldn’t have come at a better time. While he hates not being able to contribute on the field due to injury, second baseman Brendan Rodgers loves what he’s seeing. And he knows a little something about April swoons and May surges. Last season, he posted a .270 OPS in April before hitting .347 with an .864 OPS in May.
He hopes the Rockies follow suit.
“It’s been fun to watch,” Rodgers said. “We had a bad April, but whatever, just flush it. It turned around for me last May, so it could turn around for this team.”