Jake Cave’s juice launched the Rockies to a comeback win over the Giants on Friday at Coors Field.
The veteran outfielder, a stop-gap on a one-year contract for a team in transition, was a difference maker again to lead Colorado to a victory in the first game out of the All-Star break. Cave scored the tying run in the seventh after roping a leadoff pinch-hit double, then the next inning, he gave Chatfield alum Tyler Rogers a rude welcome home via the deciding three-run homer.
Cave’s clutch hits, along with another homer from the red-hot Brenton Doyle, made up for a slow offensive start in the 7-3 triumph over San Francisco in the series opener in front of 40,115.
“The way Cave plays baseball is what we want the whole team to do,” right-hander Cal Quantrill said. “He has great energy, and his approach and ability to stay in the game mentally and come into the game late and make that kind of impact is special.”
The Giants scored first in the second inning on a two-out, sinking line drive to left by Thairo Estrada. Sean Bouchard charged in and dove at the ball, but it went under his glove and rolled to the wall. That resulted in a two-RBI triple for a 2-0 visitors lead.
San Francisco added on the next inning, with Patrick Bailey’s RBI groundout to push the score to 3-0.
Meanwhile, the Rockies had just one hit through the first five innings as they struggled to get anything going against rookie Kyle Harrison. The southpaw struck out six, and Colorado also couldn’t capitalize on four walks.
After Quantrill polished off his quality start by working around Mike Yastrzemski’s single in the sixth, the Rockies offense finally came to life against right-hander Randy Rodriguez.
Elias Diaz was grazed by a pitch — and initially wanted to stay in the box before jogging down to first with some prodding by manager Bud Black from the dugout. Doyle picked up where he left off before the All-Star break to help out Quantrill, who rebounded from his shortest outing of the year in a two-inning dud in Cincinnati.
“It’s hard to be angry when I start and the team wins,” Quantrill said. “It won’t go down as my favorite start this year, but I battled through those last three innings, and I thought I gave us a chance. We were able to get it done late.”
Doyle blasted Rodriguez’s elevated fastball 434 feet into the left-field seats, his fifth homer over his last seven games. The no-doubter from Doyle, who has nine homers in July while slashing .429/.509/1.082 and continuing to emerge as a franchise pillar, got Colorado within shouting distance at 3-2.
“Doyle, doing what he’s doing right now, is one of the best players in baseball,” Jake Cave proclaimed.
In the seventh, right-hander Tyler Kinley ran into trouble when the Giants loaded the bases off him with two hits and a walk. But southpaw Jalen Beeks bailed Kinley out by striking out Michael Conforto on a full-count, top-of-the-zone cutter.
Colorado then tied the game in the bottom of the inning against right-hander Ryan Walker, taking advantage of Cave’s double down the right-field line. With two outs, Ezequiel Tovar rolled over on an infield single in the hole between third and shortstop, and Matt Champan proceeded to make an errant throw to first.
After an intentional walk to Ryan McMahon and a walk to Diaz, Doyle came up again, but grounded to third into a fielder’s choice in end the threat and keep the game tied 3-3.
But the Rockies finally took the lead in the eighth, after Brendan Rodgers’ leadoff infield single and Michael Toglia’s double off the submariner Rogers set up Cave’s 410-foot blast to right center on a hanging slider. Cave pimped the shot out of the box off, pointing and yelling to the dugout as he took his time trotting down the first base line.
After Rogers was lifted, Tovar added on to the big inning with a homer down the left field line off Luke Jackson. It was Tovar’s 15th dinger of the year and third homer in his last two games as he continues to climb out of a recent slump.
“It was a rough patch there for Tovar for a while,” Bud Black said. “He was hitting .290, .295, and slipped all the way down to near .260, so a pretty big drop. But he stayed the course and he didn’t waiver from his routine and his process, and he didn’t panic.”
With another big night of slugging, the Rockies have scored 24 of their last 25 runs via the homer, including 20 straight runs spanning from Toglia’s fifth-inning home run on July 11 at Cincinnati through Doyle’s home run on Friday in the sixth. That’s the longest streak of consecutive runs scored on homer in franchise history.
Colorado also tied a franchise record with 21 homers through its last seven games, a feat the club also achieved in 2018 and 1995. With the way the Rockies are hitting, both Quantrill and Cave believe Colorado (35-63) can play spoiler in the second half. Cave said the club has “a good chance to make some people mad.”
“We need to do everything we can to be a very competitive baseball team the rest of the way,” Quantrill added. “We want to be a team that other teams don’t want to play. We want to be a team that some of the teams in the playoff hunt don’t want to see on the schedule. If we can do that, we’re in a good spot.”
Saturday’s pitching matchup
Giants RHP Logan Webb (7-7, 3.47) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (1-3, 6.00)
6:10 p.m. Saturday, Coors Field
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: 850 AM/94.1 FM
Freeland’s been money since returning June 23 from a left elbow strain. In his four quality starts since, the Thomas Jefferson product has a 1.71 ERA and the Rockies are 3-1. He’s also pitched into the seventh inning in each of his last three outings. And he’s been excellent at home this year overall, with a 1.50 ERA in three starts and no homers allowed. Freeland has a solid track record against the Giants, going 7-6 with a 3.93 ERA in 22 career starts. Webb’s recent momentum, however, is the opposite of Freeland’s. He allowed seven runs in five innings against Toronto in his final start before the All-Star break, and in the All-Star Game he surrendered three runs in an ugly third inning that swung the momentum back toward the American League. In eight starts at Coors Field, he has a 4.24 ERA.
Pitching probables
Sunday: Giants RHP Jordan Hicks (4-6, 3.79) at Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (1-9, 5.36), 1:10 p.m.
Monday: Red Sox TBA at Rockies LHP Austin Gomber (2-6, 4.61), 6:40 p.m.
Tuesday: Red Sox TBA at Rockies RHP German Marquez (0-0, 6.75), 6:40 p.m.
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