SAN DIEGO -- Although the Rockies have struggled to win games on the road in 2021, things are trending in the right direction of late.

Colorado has gone 6-6 in its last 12 games away from Coors Field, entering Sunday. The Rockies secured their first road series win of the season on July 11 by taking two out of three against the Padres. That sent the Rockies into the All-Star break after taking a 6-31 road record into the month of July.

During the Rockies' recent uptick in road success, the club has gotten some quality outings on the mound from its starting staff and has had some strong offense.

The rotation has posted a 3.33 ERA in 48 2/3 innings over Colorado’s last nine road games coming out of the break. Those ballgames have included facing lineups like the Padres, Dodgers and Angels.

Rockies manager Bud Black said his starting staff has shown great competitiveness during their Southern California road trip.

“Just aggressive, competitive pitching,” he said. “I think that's the thing that stood out the most. On the attack. Going after hitters. Setting a great tone.”

At the plate, Colorado has hit the ball with authority over the weekend against the Padres. The Rockies' bats combined for four homers on Friday night and followed that showing by belting another three on Saturday off All-Star pitcher Yu Darvish.

Black said the overarching goal for playing winning baseball on the road is succeeding in all facets of the game.

“We have to play complete games,” Black said. “We have to pitch. We have to play defense. We have to hit. The hitting's been obviously sporadic this year. We have games like last night, we have games like the night before that lead us to believe that we can make some strides offensively.”

Those performance include games with back-to-back homers from catcher Elias Díaz and second baseman Brendan Rodgers.

Díaz said quality at-bats have been key for the recent surge on offense and noted that the club is playing quality baseball.

“Everything has come together,” Díaz said. “The offense with the defense -- we’ve pitched really well. The pitchers have thrown tremendous games. We’ve had good fortune scoring runs as a collective group.”

Rockies Draft pick signings
The Rockies signed all but one of their 21 picks from the 2021 MLB Draft. The only pick who remained unsigned after Sunday's deadline was right-handed pitcher Elijah Trest from Arkansas. The 19th-round selection announced Friday that he will return to the Razorbacks.