DENVER -- The light show had it right.
Rockies All-Star first baseman C.J. Cron went back-to-back with Brendan Rodgers on a pair of homers in the seventh inning. During their trots, the stadium lights at Coors Field drew, then blanked. Call those consecutive knockout blows in a 13-2 victory over the Pirates that raised a question as the All-Star break drew nearer.
Are the Rockies -- winners of four straight and seven of their last nine -- returning to their old ways of bouncing opponents off the canvas at home?
Last year they finished 74-87 overall, but an uncanny 48-33 at Coors. The start to this season, though, was uncharacteristically pedestrian at home. But after a series win over the Padres, they’re 4-1 while scoring 41 runs this homestand with two more to go with the Pirates, and have improved to 27-22 at Coors.
“We’re coming off a pretty good series against a very good team and we’re just trying to ride that momentum,” said Rodgers, who ignited the party with a three-run double on a low-and-outside changeup from Pittsburgh left-hander José Quintana before swatting a Dillon Peters homer a projected 433 feet to left field for his ninth homer of the season. He finished the night 2-for-5 with 4 RBIs and a run scored.
“We don't take anybody for granted," added Rodgers, "and, yeah, we came out swinging tonight.”
The Rockies (42-49) still have a lot of punches to throw to inject themselves into the expanded postseason picture in the National League.
On the plus side, the lineup is healthy. Kris Bryant, who doubled and made the highlight reel with a diving catch in the second inning, has put his back injury in the past. Cron, whose homer was his team-high 21st, also is officially past last Friday night’s scare, when he was hit on his left wrist by a pitch from the D-backs’ Zac Gallen.
The win over the Pirates also featured righty Germán Márquez (6 2/3 innings, two runs) working toward his best form. He has a 2.63 ERA over his last two starts (4 ER in 13 2/3 innings), and is 5-2 in his last nine. The third of Márquez’s four strikeouts, of Jake Marisnick in the fifth, made him the second pitcher in club history to reach 900. Jorge De La Rosa owns the club record, 985.
Márquez was hit on his right calf by a Kevin Newman smash in the seventh and left two batters later, but doesn’t expect the bruise to affect his second half.
“It means a lot to me, being here for six years,” Márquez said. “900 is a lot. I want to be on top -- I want to hit 1,000. It’s going to be this year or next year.”
After his rough beginning mirrored his team’s, Márquez going on a personal run and basking in applause at Coors, where fans are starting to expect good things, is more like it.
“It’s important to play good games here,” he said.
The Pirates, who have begun melding some of their prized prospects into their roster with more to come, started their current stretch of 14 games in 13 days playing reasonably well at 6-3, but they’ve dropped the last three and looked fatigued on Friday.
The Rockies -- also with three RBIs from catcher Elias Díaz, another player who overcame his slow start -- are 9-6 thus far in July, with two more games left in their stretch of 17 straight days of games. The baseball has been clean, and Friday’s big margin allowed key relievers a break.
“The pitching has straightened out for the most part, both starters and relievers -- there's a little charge from those from those fellas,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “Our defense has been very good over the last six weeks. That seems to be a topic we're not talking about as much, and that's a good thing. That’s been consistent. And the hitting -- you’d like to have it as often as you can. It was a big night tonight.”