PHILADELPHIA -- At an age when many players reach their peak, Rockies center fielder Charlie Blackmon is producing for average and power like never before.
The 30-year-old's two home runs in Sunday's 7-6 loss to the Phillies gave him a club-record five homers over the three-game series, even though the Rockies were swept. Four homers in a three-game set had been accomplished 10 previous times by nine players (Todd Helton did it twice).
Sunday brought Blackmon's home run total to 20, one more than his 2014 total, which was his previous career best. In his previous two years as center fielder and leadoff man, Blackmon had considerably stronger performances on the road than at home. But Sunday brought his road batting average to .326, which actually exceeds his .322 at Coors Field, and he has 11 homers on the road, compared to nine at Coors Field.

"I think, for no other reason, my baseball skills are going to get better, and that's why I produce," Blackmon said. "So I was expecting to do better than I did last year.
"I guess I'm a bit of a late bloomer. I get to play with really good baseball players every day, like DJ [LeMahieu] CarGo [Carlos González] and Nolan [Arenado]. I watch what they do well and try to do that."
Blackmon said he won't waste effort celebrating.
"I'm seeing the ball well, but I'm not going to get too excited about it, because I know tomorrow or next week or whatever, things aren't going to go so well," he said.