MEDIA CLIPS –May 30, 2018

Hits keep coming for Rockies in victory

Thomas Harding / MLB.com | May 30, 2018

DENVER -- It took nearly two months, but the Rockies have finally made themselves at home at .

A season-best fourth straight night of figures in hits -- including 's first-inning RBI , eight doubles that included two by and one by starting , and David Dahl's two , pinch- homer in the seventh -- led to an 11-4 victory over the Giants on Tuesday night.

The Rockies, who had 15 hits, built their lead in the West mainly on solid starting pitching and a 19-13 road record, which covered for a slow start at Coors Field. However, they are 4-1 on a nine-game homestand, and they're in a stretch of 12 of 15 at 20th and Blake.

"We're picking up lately," said Carlos Gonzalez, who went 2-for-5 with an RBI and is 8-for-13 in his last three games. "I feel like we'd been spoiled by the the entire year. At some point, we knew we were going to get things going."

The three-game series concludes Wednesday night, with the Giants sporting what could be one tired bullpen, for two reasons: First, matched aggressively by using five relievers in the Rockies' 6-5, 10-inning victory

Monday. Then injuries struck Tuesday.

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A two-run first that included Story's triple came against Giants starter (1-4), who didn't come back for the second inning because of right shoulder tightness. Righty Dereck Rodriguez, son of Hall of Fame Ivan Rodriguez, entered and struck out four in 3 1/3 innings. However, the second of Kelby Tomlinson's two errors opened the way for

Freeland to score and for RBI doubles by and Arenado for a 5-0 lead.

And Rodriguez had to leave the game when 's hard struck him on the lower right leg with one out in the fifth. After using relievers Will Smith and Cory Gearrin, who was responsible for a game-breaking four-run seventh,

Bochy went to starter-by-trade to pitch the eighth.

"They used a starter instead of a reliever to try and some relief for tomorrow, and we took advantage of it," said

Charlie Blackmon, who doubled and scored two runs -- one after reaching on Blach's . "Tomorrow we're in a good position to come out and have another good game."

After some seat-of-the-pants relief pitching from in the sixth and Mike Dunn in the seventh to hold a 6-3 lead, the Rockies blew it open in the seventh. Desmond flared an RBI double, and added an RBI single. Then

Dahl -- who didn't start in part for matchup purposes and in part because of a bruised shin suffered Monday night -- launched a two-run shot for his fourth homer of the season and first as a pinch-hitter.

"We stretched it and kept having quality at-bats," Rockies manager said.

The lower part of the order, which has struggled much of the year, helped fuel the rally.

"It's a long season and you're going to have those ups and downs -- and we just collectively had them in the first couple months, together," Iannetta said.

Freeland (5-5) cruised through the first four innings scoreless and a one-run fifth, but homers by and Evan

Longoria trimmed the lead in half. Freeland left after 5 1/3 innings to fall two outs short of his seventh straight quality start.

Longoria homered later off Bryan Shaw.

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Even with the damage toward the end of his outing, Freeland left with a 2.19 home ERA this season. Not only did

Freeland double, but he sprinted and nearly beat out an grounder only to make the final out in the bottom of the fifth. Beyond his effective pitching, his competitiveness has been a spark for the Rockies.

"It's always great when you know the team behind you is playing hard for you; it's a good feeling," Freeland said. "I faced them two starts ago and it was fresh in my mind and fresh in their mind what we needed to do. But the offense exploded for the whole team, and it was a good outing."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

A bullpen that saw setup stalwart Adam Ottavino go to the disabled list Monday and didn't have Wade Davis available because of workload held the lead when the game was tight:

• Oberg, fresh from Triple-A Albuquerque, replaced Freeland with one on and a 6-3 lead in the fifth and was greeted by

Mac Williamson's double to put runners at second and third. But Oberg worked into a soft liner to

Arenado at third on a 3-2 count and forced a Tomlinson grounder to Arenado. Oberg hustled to take Desmond's throw to beat the sliding Tomlinson.

• Dunn gave up a hit and a walk to open the seventh but worked a Posey fly ball, then forced Andrew McCutchen into a double-play grounder.

SOUND SMART

Gonzalez's seventh-inning single was his 700th career hit at Coors Field. The only players in club history with more at home were (1,394) and (812).

THE LONG ROUTE BACK

The Rockies recalled Oberg from Albuquerque before Monday's game, but the same hailstorm that delayed that game also forced Oberg's flight from Sacramento, Calif., to be diverted because it didn't have enough fuel to keep circling

Denver International Airport.

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The flight had to land in -- of all places -- Albuquerque. Oberg paid for internet access and informed the Rockies that he'd be late for work.

"I started laughing on the plane," he said. "I thought I'd left Albuquerque."

UP NEXT

After two awful games and a hard beginning of his last start, Rockies righty finished his last start with scoreless ball in the last three of his six innings and ended up with a win over the Reds last Friday. Gray (5-6, 5.40 ERA) hopes to build on that Wednesday night in the season finale against the Giants, who will start lefty Derek Holland (2-6, 4.73). Part of Gray's slump, however, was a road loss to the Giants during which he yielded five runs on nine hits in a season-low 3

2/3 innings.

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Bruised leg doesn't keep Dahl from homering

Thomas Harding / MLB.com | May 30, 2018

DENVER -- Rockies David Dahl suffered a bruised left shin and left calf soreness in Monday night's shin-to-shin collision with Giants Brandon Crawford, but insisted he was fine.

He proved it in the seventh inning Tuesday night.

Held out of the starting lineup for precaution, and to feed playing time to the other lefty-hitting in the corner rotation -- Gerardo Parra and Carlos Gonzalez -- Dahl entered as a pinch-hitter in the seventh. He promptly drove Cory

Gearrin's first pitch the opposite way to left field for a two-run homer in the Rockies' 11-4 victory over the Giants at Coors

Field.

Manager Bud Black received solid nights from all three. The favorable matchup with Giants starter Jeff Samardzija paid off with a single in Parra's first at-bat, before Samardzija left at the end of the inning with right shoulder soreness. Parra and Gonzalez each went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Gonzalez is 8-for-13 in his last three games.

And Dahl, with his lower leg heavily wrapped, delivered in the game-breaking four-run seventh against Gearrin.

The homer was Dahl's fourth of the season and first of his career as a pinch-hitter. It was his second straight delivery in the pinch.

Dahl singled left-on-left off the Giants' Tony Watson in the ninth inning Monday. After being caught on a pickoff move,

Dahl sped into second and slid into Crawford. His slide dislodged the ball, but he ended up writhing in pain. Dahl finished the inning but did not enter defensively.

"It's kind of a big bruise and it started swelling a little bit and we wrapped it up, and I elevated it all night last night so the swelling wasn't too bad," Dahl said before taking full practice, but limiting his on-field running before Tuesday's game.

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Dahl, who said he is considering wearing a shin guard to protect the leg, appeared in each of the 12 games (eight starts) before Tuesday -- a decent sample size, considering that the usage pattern in the last road trip and current homestand indicates he is considered a starter when healthy. The results are wild.

The overall slash line: .194 batting average, .189 on-base percentage and .306 . A 2-for-22 performance in the last eight games of the road trip dragged the numbers down. But he was the epitome of an unlucky player on the trip.

Statcast™ can produce a player's weighted on-base average (wOBA) and expected weighted on-base average (xwOBA).

If the expected on-base average is higher than the actual, it can be an indicator that the player has hit into bad luck.

Dahl's actual wOBA on the road trip was a microscopic .080. But the quality of his contact says his expected wOBA was

.300.

In the first four games of the current homestand, Dahl was 5-for-14 (.357) with a and four RBIs. And while he had well-documented bad luck on his game-ending line drive Saturday night against the Reds, the quality of Dahl's contact produced a .390 wOBA -- above his expected wOBA of .387.

Dahl appreciates the ample playing time on a first-place club.

"It's a good feeling, being on a good team, winning and that's what I'm trying to help with -- whether it's starting and getting four or five at-bats or pinch-hitting, because usually that's a big spot," Dahl said.

Worth noting

• Former Rockies lefty closer Brian Fuentes, a member of the 2007 National League championship team and the 2009 postseason squad, will represent the Rockies as a baseball dignitary at the 2018 MLB Draft on Monday, MLB announced

Tuesday.

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• Rockies DJ LeMahieu went 1-for-5 Tuesday and played five innings of defense in Scottsdale, Ariz., at extended spring camp -- his first action under game conditions since suffering a left thumb injury May 13. He will play again in extended spring Wednesday.

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21 former All-Stars headline 2018 MLB Draft club reps Dawson, Fingers, Lasorda, Jackson, Gibson among scheduled attendees

MLB.com | May 29, 2018

Twenty-one former Major League All-Stars -- including three Hall of Famers, five Most Valuable Players, four Rookies of the Year, three Managers of the Year, two batting champions and one Award winner -- are among the baseball dignitaries scheduled to represent the 30 Clubs at 's 2018 Draft, it was announced today. Amateur players who will attend the 2018 Draft will be forthcoming.

The decorated list of baseball personnel scheduled to attend includes Hall of Famer, eight-time All-Star, 1977 National

League Rookie of the Year and 1987 NL Most Valuable Player ; Hall of Famer, seven-time All-Star and

1981 MVP and Cy Young Award winner ; Hall of Fame manager and two-time NL

Manager of the Year ; 1989 All-Star sensation and multi-sport star Bo Jackson; 1988 NL MVP and 2011

NL Manager of the Year ; nine-time All-Star, 1975 AL MVP and Rookie of the Year and 1979 AL batting champion Fred Lynn; and seven-time All-Star and two-time NL MVP .

Other former All-Stars who will represent the Clubs are (alphabetically): Bob Boone (WSH); (PHI); Adam

Dunn (CIN); Brian Fuentes (COL); (ATL); (MIL); Mike Moore (SEA); Mickey Morandini (PHI);

Joe Nathan (MIN); Gregg Olson (BAL); A.J. Pierzynski (CWS); Aaron Rowand (CWS); Junior Spivey (ARI);

(NYY); Ryan Vogelsong (SF); and Duane Ward (TOR). Additional representatives include champions Tim

Salmon (LAA), Juan Pierre (MIA) and Mookie Wilson (NYM); former Major Leaguer Jr. (SD), the son of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn; and long-time baseball operations employee Sandy Dengler, who is in her 41st season in . Sandy, who represents the Rays in their 20th anniversary season after joining the Club in

December 1997, will become the first-ever female Club representative at the Draft. (A complete list of the Club representatives who are scheduled to attend the 2018 MLB Draft accompanies this press release.)

The Draft will begin live on MLB Network and MLB.com on Monday, June 4th at 7:00 p.m. (ET). Prior to the start of the

Draft, MLB Network will air a Draft preview show, also simulcast on MLB.com, at 6:00 p.m. (ET). The Draft will have 40 rounds, and a Club may pass on its selection in any round and not forfeit its right to participate in other rounds. The 2018

Draft will span three days, as it has since 2009. For day one on June 4th, Round 1 and Competitive Balance Round A will air exclusively on MLB Network and MLB.com. 8

Beginning with the first pick in Round 2 and continuing through overall pick number 78, the Draft will air live exclusively on

MLB.com, while MLB Network will continue to provide live look-ins and coverage of the Draft on MLB Tonight. The intervals between selections during round one will last four minutes, followed by one-minute intervals between selections for the remainder of day one.

The Draft will resume at 1:00 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, June 5th, when selections will be made for rounds 3-10, with one minute intervals between selections. Day three of the Draft on Wednesday, June 6th will begin at 12:00 p.m. (ET), featuring picks in rounds 11-40, with no time delay between selections.

The selection order of the Draft is determined by the reverse order of finish at the close of the previous championship season. For just the second time in team history, the will have the first overall selection of the Draft.

Previously, Detroit drafted right-handed pitcher Matt Anderson with the top overall selection in 1997. The Tampa Bay

Rays (16th, 31st, 32nd, 56th, 71st) and the (18th, 33rd, 34th, 40th, 58th) each have a Major League- best five selections within the first 78 picks during the first day of the Draft. The Cubs (24th, 62nd, 77th, 78th) and the Indians (29th, 35th, 41st, 67th) will each make four selections on the Draft's .

Beginning with the Draft preview show on Monday, June 4th at 6:00 p.m. ET, MLB Network's Greg Amsinger, Peter

Gammons, Dan O'Dowd, and MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo will anchor live coverage featuring news, analysis, interviews with Club front office personnel and representatives, footage from Club draft rooms, and features and interviews with prospects and newly drafted players. Coverage will also include contributions from MLB Network analysts including Hall of Famers Pedro Martinez, and , plus , , ,

Mark DeRosa, , , , , Carlos Peña, , and Bill Ripken, as well as Jim

Callis of MLB.com and Carlos Collazo of .

Fans can visit MLB.com for exclusive live programming of the Draft's final two days with a live draft show at 12:30 p.m.

(ET) on June 5th, also taking place at MLB Network's studios, followed by a live pick-by-pick stream and draft and scouting expert commentary from Mayo, Callis and former Major League general manager Jim Duquette. On the site, fans also can follow every pick with It Draft Tracker, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of more than 1,500 draft-eligible players with statistics, scouting reports and video highlights. On Twitter, the official Draft Twitter 9

account, @MLBDraft, will provide up-to-the-moment updates and commentary using the official Draft hashtag, #MLBDraft, while @MLBDraftTracker will tweet all picks as they are made.

The MLB Network Radio channel on SiriusXM will also offer live MLB Draft coverage to listeners nationwide. SiriusXM's

Mike Ferrin and former MLB general managers Jim Duquette and Jim Bowden will host Monday, June 4th starting at 6:00 p.m. (ET) and will provide live pick-by-pick analysis throughout the first round on Sirius channel 209, XM channel 89 and with your phone on the SiriusXM App.

2018 MLB DRAFT CLUB REPRESENTATIVES

Monday, June 4th * 7:00 p.m. (ET) * Draft Preview Show at 6:00 p.m. (ET)

List of club representatives is tentative and subject to change.

CLUB REPRESENTATI VE(S)

ARI -- Junior Spivey, Joe Robinson

ATL -- Dale Murphy, Ralph Garr

BAL -- Gregg Olson, Tripp Norton

BOS -- Fred Lynn, Edgar Perez

CHI -- HOF Andre Dawson, Keronn Walker

CWS -- A.J. Pierzynski, Aaron Rowand

CIN -- , John Ceprini

CLE -- John McDonald

COL -- Brian Fuentes, Jesse Stender

DET -- Kirk Gibson, Murray Cook

HOU -- Art Howe, Don Sanders

KC -- Bo Jackson, Colin Gonzales

LAA -- Tim Salmon

LAD -- HOF Tommy Lasorda, Bobby Darwin

MIA -- Juan Pierre, Geoff DeGroot

MIL -- Geoff Jenkins, Mark Mueller

MIN -- Joe Nathan, John Wilson 10

NYM -- Mookie Wilson, Ray Corbett

NYY -- Nick Swisher, Victor Roldan

OAK -- HOF Rollie Fingers

PHI -- Larry Bowa, Mickey Morandini

PIT -- Rennie Stennett

SD -- Tony Gwynn Jr., John Martin

SF -- Ryan Vogelsong, Mike Murphy

SEA -- Mike Moore, Dan Rovetto

STL -- Bernard Gilkey, Jaelen Gilkey

TB -- Sandy Dengler, Lou Wieben

TEX -- Darren Oliver, Jeff Williams

TOR -- Duane Ward, Matt O'Brien

WSH -- Bob Boone, Johnny DiPuglia

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Rockies’ hot offense scorches Giants at Coors Field Freeland, the Rockies’ best starter at Coors Field this season, sailed through four scoreless innings, yielding only three hits.

Patrick Saunders / MLB.com | May 29, 2018

If the Rockies are serious about winning the for the first time, they need to turn Coors Field into a house of horrors for the opposition. If not every night, then at least every once in a while, just as a scary reminder.

Tuesday night, the visiting got the full shock treatment as the Rockies used a solid start from Kyle

Freeland and a potent offense that included a season-high eight doubles to post an 11-4 victory. It was Colorado’s third consecutive win and it improved to 4-1 on its current nine-game homestand. Colorado is now 11-12 at home.

BOX SCORE: Rockies 11, Giants 4

“We scored a bunch of runs tonight … but I don’t want to get overconfident because we have won a couple of games here,” said , who cranked out one of the team’s eight doubles and extended his to seven games. “But we need to hit the ball here at home and give our pitchers a little breathing room. It’s important for us to be a good offense if we are going to be a good team.”

The Rockies buried any notion of a Giants comeback with a four-run seventh inning, highlighted by Ian Desmond’s RBI double, Chris Iannetta’s run-scoring single and a 420-foot, two-run, pinch-hit home run by David Dahl. It was the first pinch-hit homer of Dahl’s young career.

“You never know what can happen late in the game, in a three-run game,” manager Bud Black said. “They had cut our lead to 6-3, but we kept having quality at-bats. It was very significant.”

Colorado’s once-slumbering offense, displaying encouraging signs that it’s starting to heat up throughout the order, burned Giants starter Jeff Samardzija for two runs in the first inning on a leadoff double by Charlie Blackmon, a single by

Gerardo Parra, a run-scoring groundout by Nolan Arenado and a scorching RBI triple off the right-field wall by Trevor

Story.

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“We have been better, situationally, and we have done better in the last few games with runners in ,”

Blackmond said. “It’s a little bit different in a high-scoring game vs. a one-run ballgame. I think those situational at-bats become more important. But we’ve been hitting better up and down the lineup.”

The Rockies were 7-for-19 with men in scoring position Tuesday night after going 4-for-10 in Monday’s 6-5, 10-inning win over the Giants.

A two-out double by Freeland and sloppy Giants defense sparked the Rockies’ three-run fourth inning. Freeland scored and Blackmon ended up on third when second baseman Kelby Tomlinson botched Blackmon’s grounder and then threw the ball away. Back-to-back RBI doubles by Parra and Arenado boosted Colorado’s lead to

5-0.

The Giants tumbled to 1-6 on their current road trip and were charged with a season-high four errors.

Freeland, the Rockies’ best starter at Coors Field this season, sailed through four scoreless innings, yielding only three hits. He teetered a bit in the fifth, giving up a leadoff double to Mac Williamson and a two-out, run-scoring double to reliever Derek Rodriguez, the son of Hall of Famer catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, who was making his big-league debut.

Freeland sailed straight into a storm in the sixth. Buster Posey led off with a homer to left and, two batters latter, Longoria parked another pitch to left. Both pitches came on mislocated fastballs Colorado’s lead had shrunk to 6-3. Freeland got the win, improving to 5-5 overall and 3-1 at Coors on a night when he gave up three runs on eight hits with no walks and three . His home ERA, 1.40 entering the game, is now 2.19.

“We saw a little bit of what we have been seeing,” Black said. “Overall, I thought the fastball command was good. Maybe the slider wasn’t as sharp as we have seen it. But he had a good changeup; that’s what I like.

“The first inning he struck out Posey with a changeup, and got some other outs with a changeup. So the changeup was good, and that’s a really good sign for Kyle.”

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Though Freeland gave up the two homers, it was the first time this season he didn’t walk a batter.

“I was really happy about that,” he said. “My slider was kind of hit and miss, but I liked the use of my fastball to set up the changeup. I think that kind of kept them off-balance.”

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The Morning After: Kyle Freeland’s fiery nature gives Rockies a lift Kyle Freeland ...

Patrick Saunders / DenverPost.com | May 30, 2018

Rockies manager Bud Black, the former big-league pitcher, does not dole out unwarranted or superfluous praise to his pitchers.

So when Black made a point of praising Kyle Freeland’s competitive and fiery nature after the Rockies’ 11-4 thrashing of the Giants Tuesday night, it spoke volumes.

“I love it,” Black said. “I tell all of these guys, ‘Be yourself.’ The guys pull so hard for Kyle, because they know that he’s into it. He’s so invested in this team. Guys love playing behind guys like Kyle. It’s really cool. At times, he sort of plays like a position player.”

Freeland sparked Colorado’s three-run fourth inning with a two-out double, showing off some real speed and hustle on the bases. He’s been told to cool his jets a little bit on the bases, but so far he has not heeded the advice.

“I’ve heard that once or twice,” Freeland said. “But at the same time, that’s one of the things that kind of goes against my moral code of playing this game. It’s 100 percent every single time, no matter what.”

As for Black’s comments, Freeland said: “That’s a big compliment, coming from him especially. That’s kind of how I was raised, to play this game as hard as I can, no matter what happens. At the end of the day, you are going to feel better about yourself, regardless of the outcome. That coming from Bud is a big compliment.”

Five takeways from Tuesday’s game:

No. 1: Carlos Gonzalez singled in the seventh inning for his 700th career hit at Coors Field, making him one of only three

Rockies players to record 700 or more hits at Coors Field. The others: Larry Walker (812) and Todd Helton (1,394).

No. 2: Nolan Arenado continues to thrive in LoDo. The batted 2-for-5 with two RBIs and has now reached base in 22 of 23 games at home this season. The only game he didn’t reach bases was on April 11 vs. the Padres when he was ejected for fighting. He’s batting .383 (31-for-81) with a .474 on-base percentage over the streak 15

No. 3: In his first outing since getting recalled from Triple-A, right-hander Scott Oberg relieved Freeland in the sixth inning, and although he gave up a double, Oberg was able to shut down the Giants and keep the game in hand.

No. 4: Giants right-hander Dereck Rodriguez, son of Hall of Famer Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, made his big-league debut in the second inning and pitched 3 ⅓ innings, allowing four runs (one earned) with one walk and four strikeouts. He recorded his first major-league hit with an RBI double in the fifth inning.

No. 5: The Rockies (30-25) maintained a 1 ½-game lead over Arizona for first place in the National League West. The D- backs beat the Reds 5-2. The Dodgers fell to 4 ½ games out of first after losing 6-1 to the Phillies at Los Angeles.

Quotable: “He’s getting a lot more hits.” — center fielder Charlie Blackmon, explaining Gonzalez’s resurgence at the plate.

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For Nolan Arenado and his Rockies teammates, playing through pain is part of the job David Dahl thankful that shin injury just a bruise

Patrick Saunders / DenverPost.com | May 29, 2018

Rockies nation held its breath Sunday at Coors Field.

There was five-time Gold Glove third baseman Nolan Arenado — the face of the franchise and one of the best baseball players on the planet — stretching his right leg, a grimace on his face in the third inning. It appeared Arenado might be injured.

It turned out to be a minor groin pull, and Arenado extinguished fears in the sixth inning by launching a 449-foot homer to center in Colorado’s 8-2 victory over .

“It was no big deal. I just shook it off,” Arenado said the next day. “I’ve played through a lot worse.”

Such as?

“A couple of years ago, I sprained my wrist lifting weights,” Arenado said. “I had to deal with that for a while, and now I still wear tape on my wrist every game because of that. It took me a while to get over that, but none of you guys knew about it.”

Catcher Chris Iannetta has even more extreme examples of playing through pain. In 2012, while playing for the Angels,

Iannetta shattered a bone in his right wrist after getting hit by a pitch and kept playing for 10 more days until an MRI finally revealed the extent of the problem and the source of the searing pain. As it turned out, the bone was shattered in five places, but a ligament was holding it together.

Last May, while playing for Arizona, Iannetta was taken to a hospital after getting hit in the face by a 93 mph fastball thrown by Pittsburgh’s Johnny Barbato. Baseball fans across the country winced when they saw video replays of the incident. Iannetta fractured two teeth, broke his nose and required stitches to sew up his lip.

Diamondbacks fans were acutely aware of Iannetta’s gruesome injuries, but they didn’t know the full story. 17

“When I fell down on that play, I sprained my ankle. It was really bad,” Iannetta recalled. “But the sprain was in a really weird place, and it didn’t hurt when I ran or cut, but when I had to block pitches, it hurt every time I did it.

“For three months afterward, it hurt every time. So I had to change the way I blocked pitches. I couldn’t do it as well, and everybody thought I just wasn’t blocking pitches very well. But it was because of my ankle.”

It’s one of the unwritten rules of baseball. Players must play hurt much of the time. Bruises, sprains, strains and even broken bones are part of a job that grinds on from into October. For many players, staying on the diamond is a badge of honor.

“If fans spent a week or even a couple of days with us in the training room, and see what we go through, I think they would have a new perspective on what guys do to get ready,” Arenado said. “There are things we are always dealing with that we don’t want (the media) to know about. We don’t want to be asked about it all the time. There is stuff you deal with and play through, just because you can.”

When he began playing professional baseball at age 18, straight out of high school in Irving, Texas, he didn’t realize the physical toll that a full season of baseball would have on his body.

“I’ve come to appreciate that more, for sure, just what it takes to play a full season,” he said. “You have to do a lot of preventative stuff, and it gets really tiring doing that every day. But you have to do that.

“You deal with stuff all of the time. I broke my left foot in high school, and sometimes it just starts aching. It will hurt for a little while, pretty bad, and then it just goes away. It’s little things like that. You never feel 100 percent during the season, but that’s what we signed up for.”

Footnotes. Outfielder David Dahl, who collided with the Giants’ Brandon Crawford while stealing second base in the ninth inning Monday night, was out of the starting lineup Tuesday. Dahl, however, avoided a serious injury and was available to pinch hit. “We ran into each other’s shins,” Dahl said. “It hurt a lot and at first I thought, ‘Oh, no, I broke my tibia.’ But it’s just bruised a little sore. I’ll be fine.” … Second baseman DJ LeMahieu (broken left thumb) has missed 14 games, but he

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began his rehab at extended spring in Arizona on Tuesday, going 1-for-5 and playing in the field. He’s on track to rejoin the Rockies on Friday when they host the Dodgers.

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This Denver man has amassed one of the most complete (and maybe most valuable) baseball memorabilia collections in the country

Kevin Beaty / DenverPost.com | May 29, 2018

DENVER — The year was 1989 and Marshall Fogel, lifelong Denver resident and local lawyer, was visiting Chicago when he wandered into a massive sports convention.

“God,” he said, “it was like walking in heaven.”

He picked up a few baseball items and, soon, his love affair with relics of the game had become more than a hobby.

In the years following, Fogel amassed a collection that’s become perhaps the most complete (and valuable) in the country. Now, many of his prized photographs, tickets, bats and gloves are on display in the History Colorado Center’s exhibit “Play Ball!” It celebrates the history of the game in honor of the Rockies’ 25th season.

Fogel grew up in Park Hill and Hilltop. He played baseball a little when he was a kid — as “a very poor catcher,” he said

— but it wasn’t until adulthood that his passion for collecting took off.

In the meantime, he graduated from East High, then the University of Colorado, then the University of Denver law school, spent time working in the Denver District Attorney’s office and finally opened his own firm on Bannock Street.

His experience as a lawyer, Fogel said, lent itself well to his eventual obsession.

“You have to have a certain personality,” he said. “You have to be real compulsive about condition. Just like when I practiced law: you gotta get every detail, you gotta analyze, you gotta learn what you’re doing.”

Fogel is, if nothing else, a “certain personality.” He can’t help but throw himself full-force into whatever he’s chasing.

Eventually, his interest in law waned, and he retired to chase those pursuits full-time.

“I said, ‘I’ve had enough, I’m gonna fill my bucket list.’ I watched that movie with Jack Nicholson,” he recalled, and said to himself, “What am I doing?” 20

So, in 2009, he said, “I wanna join an army,” and flew to Israel to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. While he grew up in

East Denver’s Jewish neighborhood, it was more the experience than the mission he was interested in. He said he’d have joined the French Foreign Legion if they’d let him.

“At the age of 68 I went over there, drove tanks,” he said. “I’ll never do it again, because boy, it was tough. Of course, I was really old to do that. And then I just finished (writing) a book,” a biography of General Maurice Rose, namesake of the hospital not far off Colorado Boulevard. Another item checked off his list.

Those passions for history and culture and experience are the same forces that propelled him into memorabilia royalty.

“There’s a story behind all of this stuff,” he said. And his eyes lit up as he listed each item.

There’s the last bat ever signed, a note he wrote on his deathbed. The first ticket to the first World Series in

1903. Photographs of , in perfect condition, that show the revolutionary slugger on his first and last games.

Those photos, in particular, have a special place in the collection. Original prints never held much value, that is, until he and collaborator Henry Yee invented a system to authenticate them in 2005.

“It created a market for this stuff,” Fogel said.

Their system helped place original photographs into the canon of the collecting world. He had become more than a patron of that universe; he’d left his mark on it, too.

“Baseball, in sports, is the most important and most expensive collectible,” Fogel said, thumbing through reams of trading cards, “and there’s a reason for that: it’s the game of the singular hero.”

The golden age of the game was full of those icons. They sported names like “Shoeless Joe,” “The Duke of Flatbush” and

“The Babe.” Crowds watched with joy as they stepped to the plate, alone and looming large. 21

“It’s just got such magic,” he said. “Boy, you go in a stadium and it’s like a Norman Rockwell painting. Everything is perfect.”

Today, he said, the game is still pretty perfect.

Though Fogel loves the old Yankee stadium — he was a fan of the Denver Bears as a kid, a New York farm team — he loves watching the Rockies play. Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado, he said, “They’re throwback guys.”

Blackmon, especially, embodies the spirit of those golden age titans for Fogel.

“He’s got the swagger, he’s a character,” and, he said, “a hell of a hitter.”

As far as his bucket list goes, Fogel said he’s more or less finished. Today, he’s just excited to share it with the city.

It’s not the first time — he provided some items for display at the City and County Building when the All-Star Game graced

Denver in 1998 — but he says it’s by far the largest.

“I’d say we’re having a hell of a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m so happy that I can share it.”

And as for the future, Fogel hopes his collection might stay in the city.

“It would be my pleasure if the Colorado history museum owned it,” he said.

His dense archive isn’t solely related to the city or the state but, still, Fogel said Denverites are fit to have ownership of it.

“It’s baseball,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be Denver, it’s our national game.”

“Play Ball!” will be open at the History Colorado Center through the end of the 2018 Major League Baseball season.

22

On the enduring power of Carlos Gonzalez’s positivity and the Rockies’ limited faith in their slugger

Nick Groke / TheAthletic.com | May 30, 2018

DENVER — In his early days with the Rockies, when Carlos Gonzalez was a pup still learning the game, a message often showed up with his per diem, a piece of paper slipped in with his daily lunch money, like a mom or dad who hides a love note in a lunch box for their kids. It came from the club’s traveling secretary, Paul Egins.

Over the years the paper stopped showing up. But the message returned recently when the Rockies started a long homestand at Coors Field. On a sticky note, over three lines in all caps and stuck to Gonzalez’s locker, Egins wrote the message again:

HITS!

HITS!

HITS!

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do every single day,” Gonzalez said.

Twice on a recent road trip, Gonzalez gave the Rockies game-breaking pinch-hits, then sat on the bench the next day. He started in just two games last week. And after he struck out on six pitches in a pinch-hit at-bat Friday against the Reds, the unthinkable threatened Gonzalez.

The biggest smile in the room seemed to be fading.

“I’ve been playing for a long time. It’s a blessing to keep playing the game,” he said. “I know it can be frustrating sometimes. I’m a human being and sometimes I get here and I’m a little disappointed I’m not playing, but I just keep working hard.”

Whether by positive reinforcement or the sheer will of hope and faith, Gonzalez is slowly climbing out of another career- threatening slump. After he singled twice, with a run and an RBI, in the Rockies’ 11-4 blowout victory over the Giants on

23

Tuesday, Gonzalez reached 700 career hits at Coors Field. He is just the third player to reach the mark, after Larry

Walker (812) and Todd Helton (1,394).

More pressingly, Gonzalez has eight hits in his past three games. After his batting average dropped to a season-low .213 three weeks ago, Colorado’s clubhouse leader suffered the indignity of a series of benchings. This was entirely unfamiliar to Gonzalez.

“I know I’m not getting a lot of chances. But not getting hits doesn’t help my cause,” he said. “I’m like, ‘OK, well, they’re not playing you. You have to play better if you want to play every day.’

“That’s what I’m trying to do, stay positive.”

Against the Reds on Sunday at Coors Field, Gonzalez tagged a 461-foot homer to the third deck in right field, the 11th- longest homer in the majors this season, a colossal two-run shot that looked like vintage CarGo. It also underlined what we know of Gonzalez from the past. It was his 1,300th career hit, fourth-most in Rockies history.

“That doesn’t happen by accident,” Colorado manager Bud Black said. “When CarGo is right, his timing is there. He’s got the leg kick and pitchers try to disrupt that timing. But he was on time.”

Black all season has repeated his opinion that “our best team has the good version of Carlos Gonzalez in the middle of our lineup.”

Last season, after Gonzalez’s average dipped to .188 on May 10, he continued to be a fixture in the lineup in right field.

Black extended him plenty of patience. And it worked. Gonzalez hit .377 in September with a 1.250 OPS.

This season, Black’s faith is limited. Stuck with three left-handed outfielders vying for two corner spots, including David

Dahl and Gerardo Parra, Black has started the hot hand or looked for favorable matchup histories.

That has often left Gonzalez watching instead of participating. He has started in just 30 of the Rockies’ 55 games this season. 24

It’s a pickle. Gonzalez needed to find his timing at the plate in order to escape a slump. But his slump kept him from regular at-bats. And he couldn’t time his swing without at-bats. So he sat.

“It’s challenging,” Gonzalez said. “In the past, no matter what, no matter how hot or cold I started the season, I knew I’d be in there every night. The one thing I’ve been doing is just continue to work. Even if I’m not on the field playing, between innings I can go in the cage, hit when nobody is watching.”

The Rockies believe they have diagnosed Gonzalez’s problem at the plate. Hitting coaches Duane Espy and found too much coil in his swing. His right, lead shoulder turned in at the beginning of the load and his bat fell behind

Gonzalez’s head. He was torquing too much. It’s a good way to find power, but an inefficient path to the ball.

It left Gonzalez late on fastballs up and inside. Opposing pitchers figured this out quickly. And when Gonzalez tried to guess at their pitches and cheat up and in, they threw him breaking balls low and away that fooled him easily.

There was no clear reason why Gonzalez’s swing fell off track. “Baseball is stupid sometimes,” Salazar said.

Maybe Gonzalez hit in a casual and fell into the bad habit of pushing for power. Or maybe in his eagerness to rediscover the CarGo of old, he pressed for the longball.

“He just needed to believe it,” Salazar said.

So the Rockies gave Gonzalez two days off to work on muscle memory, retraining his swing to use less movement, less coil. They wanted Gonzalez to swing more directly at a pitch. The movements are minor, but the results, they hope, are significant.

The 461-foot homer made for a highlight reel entry, but Black was equally impressed by Gonzalez’s three subsequent singles that game. On Monday against the Giants, Gonzalez went 2-for-4 with a walk. On Tuesday, he smacked two more hits, to right and left field.

25

“He’s just simplifying things,” Charlie Blackmon said. “He’s seeing the ball, hitting the ball. Not trying to hit it 800 feet. Just trying to hit it on the barrel. He looks really good right now.”

At 32, Gonzalez is hardly at an alarming age. He is younger than Rockies regulars Ian Desmond and Chris Iannetta. But he is the longest-tenured player in Colorado. And when the Rockies signed him to a one-year, $8 million contract late in spring training, they wanted Gonzalez for who he is as much as who he once was.

Gonzalez’s swing is among the sweetest in baseball and his elegance cannot be replicated. “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,” John Keats wrote.

Gonzalez, in his own way, plays the same way.

“Style is forever,” he said. “It stays there all the time.”

He also may be incapable of reinvention. His slump, then, was especially alarming. If Gonzalez can’t figure out his swing, his time in the Rockies’ lineup may be abbreviated.

But he will plow forward with a joy and seek hits.

“As long as you stay positive, as long as you keep working, you can keep faith,” Gonzalez said. “I believe I’m a player who can help this club. Even when I’m having down days, I always keep pushing, always keep my smile.

“You can always get something positive out of everything.”

26

Giants lose 2 pitchers to injury in 11-4 loss to Rockies

Associated Press / USAToday.com | May 30, 2018

DENVER (AP) — Kyle Freeland got the Rockies going with his arm and his bat.

Freeland pitched effectively into the sixth inning and doubled during Colorado's three-run fourth Tuesday night, leading the Rockies to an 11-4 win over the San Francisco Giants, who lost two pitchers to injury — including starter Jeff

Samardzija.

"Since Day One, he's always been trying to get better," teammate Carlos Gonzalez said of Freeland, who is in his second major league season. "He's always working, running out balls, getting upset when he doesn't get the job done. It's just nice to see that from a young guy, a guy who wants to establish himself. I think that's why he's been successful in the big leagues."

Freeland said his all-around competitive approach was instilled from an early age.

"That's kind of how I was raised, to play this game as hard as you can, and no matter what happens, at the end of the day you're going to feel better about yourself, regardless of the outcome," he explained.

His teammates pitched in, with every player in the starting lineup getting at least one hit.

David Dahl had a two-run shot off reliever Cory Gearrin as part of Colorado's four-run seventh, the first pinch-hit homer of his career.

Trevor Story added a run-scoring triple and Nolan Arenado, Gerardo Parra and Ian Desmond each had an RBI double for the Rockies, who have won 12 of their last 13 games against the Giants at Coors Field.

"We're just trying to have quality at-bats, not being too selfish about it, just trying to get a good pitch to hit and get on base, move guys over," Gonzalez said.

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Evan Longoria hit two home runs and Buster Posey also went deep for the Giants. All three were solo shots. It was

Longoria's 18th career multihomer game and first since July 17, 2016, with Tampa Bay.

Freeland (5-5) tossed 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on eight hits, including homers by Longoria and Posey. The left-hander struck out three and walked none.

Samardzija (1-4) left after one inning because of tightness in his pitching shoulder. He threw 23 pitches, yielding three hits and two runs.

The right-hander said he has been bothered by the shoulder for a while but had been able to work though the issue in the past couple of outings.

"It's frustrating to have a setback," he said. "I always want to pitch. I always feel like I'm OK to pitch. Sometimes other people have to step in and tell you differently. I respect and trust the people around me. You listen to them and go from there."

Samardzija was replaced by rookie right-hander Dereck Rodriguez, the son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez who was making his major league debut.

The younger Rodriguez, called up Monday from Triple-A Sacramento, went 3 1/3 innings and allowed four runs — one earned. He was removed after being struck in the right shin by a line drive off the bat of Desmond with one out in the fifth.

"I wanted to stay in," Rodriguez said. "But after I threw a few warmup pitches, it felt like it wanted to cramp up to where I couldn't push off my back leg."

Leading 2-0, the Rockies took advantage of some sloppy defense by the Giants to add three unearned runs in the fourth.

Rodriguez fanned the first two hitters he faced before Freeland doubled. Second baseman Kelby Tomlinson failed to handle Charlie Blackmon's grounder for his second error of the night, allowing Freeland to score. Blackmon advanced to third on a throwing error by first baseman Brandon Belt, and Parra and Arenado followed with RBI doubles.

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Tomlinson made a third error when his high toss on Story's eighth-inning fielder's choice pulled shortstop Brandon

Crawford off second base.

FEELING THEIR PAIN

"Obviously, it's part of the game. You don't like to see it. I'm not sure what happened with Samardzija. The young kid, that was rough. Desmond hit a bullet. Every night, there seems to be something on the injury front or something physical in this game, but it's part of competing at this level." — Rockies manager Bud Black expressing empathy over two Giants pitchers getting hurt.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Giants: LHP is scheduled to make his second minor league rehab start Thursday, at San

Jose. He is slated to throw 70-75 pitches and provided he comes out of the outing well, he's expected to be reinstated from the 60-day disabled list. "Hopefully, knock on wood, all goes well, he feels fine when he comes out of it, and he'll be pitching for us," manager Bruce Bochy said. Bumgarner broke his left hand in his final spring training game against

Kansas City on March 23 when he was struck by a line drive. He pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings with eight strikeouts in his first rehab start for Triple-A Sacramento last Saturday.

Rockies: Dahl was held out of the starting lineup because of a sore left shin after he collided with Crawford at second base Monday night.

UP NEXT

Giants: LHP Derek Holland (2-6, 4.73 ERA) makes his third career start against the Rockies on Wednesday. He is 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in his previous outings.

Rockies: RHP Jon Gray (5-6, 5.40) faces the Giants at Coors Field for the first time. He has gone 0-2 with a 4.26 ERA in four previous starts, all in San Francisco.

29

Dereck Rodriguez Brings A Hall of Fame Heritage

Tracy Ringolsby / InsidetheSeams.com | May 30, 2018

Ivan Dereck Rodriguez grew up around big-league ballparks.

His father, Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, after all, was an All-Star catcher who has since been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of

Fame.

Monday night, Rodriguez was back in a big-league ballpark, only this time he was there for work, called up by the San

Francisco Giants, in need of pitching depth. And on Tuesday night, he became the 13th son of a Hall of Fame player to appear in a big-league game.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

Hall of Famer Positions Son(s) Positions

Earl Averill† Outfielder Jr. Catcher

Yogi Berra† Catcher / Manager Dale Berra

Eddie Collins† Second baseman Jr. Outfielder

Tony Gwynn† Outfielder Tony Gwynn Jr. Outfielder

Freddie Lindstrom† Third baseman / Outfielder Chuck Lindstrom Catcher

Connie Mack† Catcher / Manager Earle Mack Catcher / Manager

Jim O'Rourke† Outfielder / Manager Queenie O'Rourke Infielder / Outfielder

Tony Pérez† Infielder / Manager Eduardo Pérez Infielder

Tim Raines† Outfielder Jr. Outfielder

Ivan Rodriguez Catcher Dereck Rodriguez Pitcher

George Sisler† First baseman / Manager Dave Sisler Pitcher

Dick Sisler First baseman / Manager

30

Hall of Famer Positions Son(s) Positions

Ed Walsh† Pitcher Jr. Pitcher

Father of Hall of Famer

Father Position Hall of Famer Position

Sandy Alomar, Sr. Second baseman + Second baseman

Ken Griffey, Sr. Outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr.+ Outfielder

Cal Ripken Manager, Orioles Cal Ripken, Jr. Shortstop

Son/Executive

Hall of Famer Position Son Position

Nolan Ryan Pitcher Reid Ryan President, Astros

Ed Runge Paul Runge Umpire

Rodriguez got the call to make his big-league debut, taking over in the second inning of what became an 11-4 loss to the

Rockies at Coors Field after starter Jeff Samardzija departed due to tightness in his right shoulder.

It didn’t have the storybook ending.

Oh, Rodriguez pitched 3 1/3 innings, and three of the four runs he gave up were unearned. He also, like his father, had a hit in his big-league debut, but while the his father singled, the son doulbed home a run in the fifth inning after striking out in his first big-league ab-bat.

Rodriguez's removal on Tuesday wasn’t by choice, but rather necessity. He took an Ian Desmond line drive off his right leg.

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That, however, didn’t lessen the feeling of accomplishment for Rodriguez, a sixth-round draft choice of the Minnesota

Twins as an outfielder when he came out of high school in 2011. After spending three years at the rookie-league level and compiling a .217 batting average he made the conversion to pitching in 2014.

The younger Rodriguez spent four more years in the Twins organization, refining his skills on the mound. He, however, reached the Double-A level for only 15 of his 81 pitching appearances, Rodriguez became a free agent. And after an off- season talk with , who worked out in the -area at the facility, Rodriguez decided to sign with the

Giants.

Nine starts, a 4-1 record and a 3.40 ERA later, Rodriguez found himself in a big-league clubhouse, only this time because he was a big-leaguer, not just hanging with his father.

THE PATH TO THE BIG LEAGUES

ER G S H B S Year Tm Lg Lev Aff W L G IP H R ER A S V R B O

Elizabetht APP MI 1.0 1 2014 Rk 2 2 0 5 25.2 19 6 3 0 8 19 on Y N 5 7

3 Rk- MI 3.3 1 2015 3 Teams 6 4 14 0 75.1 74 35 28 6 19 66 Lgs A-A+ N 5 5

FLO MI Fort Myers A+ 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 2 2 R N

Cedar MID MI A 0 1 9 2 2 0 7 9 7 7 1 6 3 Rapids W N

Elizabetht APP MI 2.8 1 Rk 6 3 12 0 66.1 64 28 21 5 11 61 on Y N 5 2

2 MI 1 4.4 2 132. 12 11 2016 2 Teams A-A+ 5 23 0 76 66 11 40 Lgs N 3 8 3 2 7 1

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ER G S H B S Year Tm Lg Lev Aff W L G IP H R ER A S V R B O

FLO MI 2.5 Fort Myers A+ 1 2 5 5 0 31.2 29 12 9 4 2 18 R N 6

Cedar MID MI 1 5.0 1 A 4 18 0 101 98 64 57 7 38 93 Rapids W N 1 8 8

2 AA- MI 1 3.2 2 143. 13 12 2017 2 Teams 6 24 0 58 52 16 38 Lgs A+ N 0 7 6 1 3 1

Chattanoo SOU MI 3.9 1 AA 5 4 13 0 75.1 74 36 33 9 27 62 ga L N 4 5

FLO MI 2.5 1 Fort Myers A+ 5 2 11 0 68 59 22 19 7 11 59 R N 1 1

Sacrament SF 2018 PCL AAA 4 1 3.4 9 9 0 50.1 49 24 19 11 11 53 o G

ER G S H S Year Tm Lg Lev Aff W L G IP H R ER BB A S V R O

Minors

(5 Minor 2 2 3.5 9 427. 40 19 16 11 37 70 5 44 season s 7 6 4 0 1 2 9 8 6 0 s)

A+ (3 Minor 2.4 1 101. season 6 4 16 0 89 34 28 11 15 79 s 8 7 2 s)

A (2 Minor 1 5.3 2 10 season 4 20 0 108 71 64 8 44 96 s 2 3 0 7 s)

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ER G S H B S Year Tm Lg Lev Aff W L G IP H R ER A S V R B O

Rk (2 Minor 2.3 2 season 8 5 12 5 92 83 34 24 5 19 80 s 5 9 s)

Source: Baseball-referencer.com

There list of the father/son connections in the Hall of Fame could easily grow by two.

Pete Rose, Sr., and both have careers with Hall of Fame numbers, but bother have so far been denied induction. The game's all-time hit leader, the elder Rose appeared in 17 All-Star Games, was the NL Rookie of the Year in

1963, NL MVP in 1973, a Gold Glove winner as an outfielder in 1969 and 1970, and won a in 1981.

Rose was banned from baseball in 1989 for gambling on the game, and two years later the Board of Directors for the Hall of Fame ruled a person banned from the game could not be considered for induction. Rose's son, Pete, Jr., did not have anything close to the career of his father, but he did make a brief big-league appearance with the Reds in 1997.

ROSE RESUMES

G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA

Pete Rose, 3562 15890 14053 2165 4256 746 135 160 1314 198 149 1566 1143 0.303 Sr.

Reds (1963- 2722 12344 10934 1741 3358 601 115 152 1036 146 110 1210 972 0.307 78, 1984-86

Phillies 745 3232 2841 390 826 139 18 8 255 51 38 325 151 0.291 (1979-83)

Expos (1984) 95 314 278 34 72 6 2 0 23 1 1 31 20 0.259

Pete Rose, G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA Jr.

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G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA

Reds (1997) 11 16 14 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 9 0.143

Barry Bonds is baseball's Home Run King, hitting 762 during a career in which he also was a 14-time All-Star, seven-time

MVP, eight-time Gold Glove selection, 12-time Silver Slugger honoree, and had a career WAR of 162.8, No. 1 all-time in the game. But he has not been inducted into the Hall of Fame because the voters have never come close to giving him the 75 percent vote required for election in response to Bonds being tied to steroids. He does have four years remaining on the ballott, but his support has not shown a major improvement in his first six years of elgiibility.

DOOR SLAMMED SHUT

Bonds Finish Inductees

2013 (36.2%), 9th None

2014 (34.7%), 10th , , Frank Thomas

2015 (36.8%) 10th , Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz,

2016 (44.3%) 8th Ken Griffey, Jr.,

2017 (53.8%) 8th , Ivan Rodriguez, Tim Raines

2018 (56.4%) 8th , , , Jim Thome

Bonds and father Bobby did, however, put together as impressive a father-son career as any. played for six teams in his 14-year career, but he was a three-time All-Star, and did win three Gold Gloves.

SON OUTSHINES FATHER

Player G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA

Barry Bonds (2

teams, 22 2986 12606 9847 2227 2935 601 77 762 1996 514 141 2558 1539 0.298

years)

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Player G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA

Bobby Bonds

(8 teams, 14 1849 8090 7043 1258 1886 302 66 332 1024 461 169 914 1757 0.268 years)

36

Tuesday 4x4: It's About Freeland's Quality

Tracy Ringolsby / InsidetheSeams.com | May 30, 2018

Left-hander Kyle Freeland leads the Rockies with seven quality starts this season. More impressively he has turned in a quality effort in each of his last six starts. He has had two of those starts at home, including a 4-0 win against the NL

Central-leading , in which he worked 6 1/3 innings. Freeland is tied for third in the NL in quality starts, two behind NL leader Max Scherzer of the Nationals.

QUALITY CONTROL

Date Opponent W L ERA IP H R ER HR BB SO AVG

4/24/2018 SD W 8-0 1 0 0 7 3 0 0 0 2 8 0.125

4/30/2018 @ChC L 3-2 0 1 1.93 7 6 3 3 0 1 5 0.18

5/6/2018 @NYM W 3-2 1 0 2.14 7 4 2 2 0 1 8 0.176

5/12/2018 Mil W 4-0 1 0 1.65 6.1 4 0 0 0 4 6 0.175

5/18/2018 @SF W 6-1 1 0 1.59 6.2 5 1 1 1 1 5 0.183

5/23/2018 @LAD L 3-0 0 1 2.01 6.1 6 3 3 0 3 3 0.197

W L ERA INN H R ER HR BB SO AVG

Totals 4 2 2.01 40.1 28 9 9 1 12 35 0.197

Source: Stats, Inc.

Coors Field has become a nightmare for the Giants. They have lost 10 of 11 games in the ballpark since the start of 2017, and it hasn't been a lot of late-game meltdowns. Monday was only the second blown save for the Giants bullpen in the 11 games.

GIGANTIC MILE HIGH MELTDOWN

Date W L IP H R ER HR BB SO ERA

4/21/2017 0 1 8 9 6 6 2 4 4 6.75

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Date W L IP H R ER HR BB SO ERA

4/22/2017 0 1 8 14 12 7 3 3 9 7.88

4/23/2017 0 1 8 8 8 8 1 3 6 9

6/15/2017 0 1 8.1 15 10 10 0 4 13 10.8

6/16/2017 0 1 8 15 10 10 2 1 8 11.25

6/17/2017 0 1 8 14 5 4 0 3 5 4.5

6/18/2017 0 1 8.1 13 7 7 3 2 8 7.56

9/4/2017 0 1 8.2 8 4 3 1 8 9 3.12

9/5/2017 0 1 8 13 9 9 1 2 6 10.13

9/6/2017 1 0 9 8 3 3 1 1 11 3

5/28/2018 0 1 9.1 11 6 5 1 3 10 4.82

0-2 Saves 1 10 91.2 128 80 72 15 34 89 7.07

Source: Stats, Inc.

The Giants will call on right-hander Jeff Samardzija to start on Tuesday. He lost both his starts at Coors Field last year. and he has struggled so far this season, where the Giants needed him to help pick up the slack while Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto are on the disabled list. Not only is he 1-3, but the Giants are 2-5 in his starts. And now he faces the challenge of Coors Field.

ALTITUDE SICKNESS

Date Opponent W L ERA GS IP H R ER HR BB SO AVG

8/7/2009 @Col L 6-2 0 0 4.5 0 4 5 2 2 1 1 1 0.313

4/15/2011 @Col L 5-0 0 0 3.6 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.263

4/17/2011 @Col L 9-5 0 0 2.57 0 2 1 0 0 0 2 1 0.231

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Date Opponent W L ERA GS IP H R ER HR BB SO AVG

7/19/2013 @Col W 3-1 1 0 1.88 1 7.1 4 1 1 1 3 6 0.204

4/12/2016 @Col W 7-2 1 0 2.01 1 8 6 2 2 0 2 5 0.205

9/6/2016 @Col W 3-2 0 0 2.15 1 7 4 2 2 0 1 9 0.198

4/23/2017 @Col L 8-0 0 1 3.63 1 5.1 7 7 7 1 3 6 0.221

6/16/2017 @Col L 10-8 0 1 4.87 1 6 11 8 8 2 1 4 0.255

W L ERA GS INN H R ER HR BB SO AVG

Totals 2 2 4.87 5 40.2 38 22 22 5 13 34 0.255

Sources: Stats, Inc.

There are 15 active players (minimum 150 plate appearances) with a career slugging percentage of .500 or better against the Giants. Two of them are now Giants -- Hunter Pence and Nick Hundley. Two others are Rockies -- Nolan Arenado and

Trevor Story. Arenado is No. 2 at .591, trailing only .

SLUGGING IT OUT

Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SLG

Giancarlo Stanton 46 174 31 56 16 1 17 36 21 45 0.718

Nolan Arenado 93 372 62 117 34 3 21 80 25 48 0.591

Jake Lamb 57 177 28 49 14 4 10 29 31 45 0.571

Albert Pujols 72 267 44 85 12 0 17 50 40 35 0.554

Miguel Cabrera 41 150 27 45 8 0 10 32 15 26 0.553

Hunter Pence 39 149 20 44 5 1 10 20 7 22 0.544

Ryan Braun 62 240 37 68 17 3 13 39 20 65 0.542

Jay Bruce 59 223 41 66 13 1 12 42 18 63 0.525

Jason Heyward 49 156 24 46 5 3 8 23 18 34 0.519

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Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SLG

Andrew McCutchen 55 212 42 64 14 4 7 29 23 40 0.505

Nick Hundley 74 254 35 72 12 1 14 32 23 69 0.504

Edwin Encarnacion 38 129 19 40 10 0 5 25 18 15 0.504

Joc Pederson 53 133 16 33 11 1 7 17 23 30 0.504

Trevor Story 37 149 24 39 5 2 9 28 8 53 0.503

Paul Goldschmidt 121 426 73 119 27 4 20 74 76 109 0.502

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Rockies explode for 11 runs in win over Giants

Aniello Piro / MileHighSports.com | May 29, 2018

The Colorado Rockies walloped the San Francisco Giants 11-4 on Tuesday night at Coors Field to take a 2-0 series lead.

Momentum carried over from Monday’s walk-off victory as the Rockies’ bats picked up where they left off. Charlie

Blackmon began the bottom of the first inning with a double to right field, then Gerardo Parra’s single put two runners on base for Nolan Arenado. Arenado, doing to too few of his teammates have this season, made a productive out; grounding out to shortstop but driving home Blackmon in the process. After a Carlos Gonzalez , Trevor Story ripped a two- out triple to right field, scoring an additional run to give Colorado an early 2-0 lead.

Giants starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija was pulled following the first inning due to right shoulder tightness and was later seen in the dugout snapping a bat over his knee out of frustration. Rookie Dereck Rodriguez, son of Hall-of-Fame catcher

Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, took over for Samardzija on the mound.

The game remained quiet through the second and third innings; however, the Rockies plated another three runs in the fourth inning — all of which came with two outs. Starting pitcher Kyle Freeland whacked a double to deep right field to give the Rockies a runner in scoring position to turn over the lineup. From there, Blackmon reached base on a throwing error by Giants’ second basemen Kelby Tomlinson. Freeland wound up scoring and Blackmon advanced to third on the same play due to a throwing error by Brandon Belt. Blackmon then scored on an RBI double to right field hit by Parra, and then Arenado lined a double of his own to right field, scoring Parra and pushing the Rockies out in front by five.

The Giants managed to get on the board in the fifth inning via an RBI double hit by Rodriguez, but the Rockies clapped back with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning as last night’s hero, Chris Iannetta, hit a to score Ian

Desmond, who had reached base on an infield single.

The veteran bats of the Giants provided a spark for San Francisco in the sixth inning as both Buster Posey and Evan

Longoria hit solo home runs to make the score 6-3.

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The Rockies went on to blow the game wide open in the bottom of the seventh inning by scoring an additional four runs after hits by Gonzalez, Desmond, Iannetta and pinch-hitter David Dahl, who smacked the first pitch he saw over the fence in center field to extend the Rockies lead to 10-3. It was the first career pinch-hit home run for the 24-year-old.

Longoria hit another solo home run to center field in the eighth inning, which made the score 10-4; however, the Giants’ offense was dormant for the remainder of the ballgame.

The Rockies added their final run of the contest in the bottom of the eighth inning when Gonzalez — who has hit well over

.400 over the last week — hit a single to left-center field to score Arenado, who reached earlier in the inning on a double.

Every starter in the batting order recorded at least one hit in the win, including pitcher Kyle Freeland, who logged 5 1/3 innings on the mound, allowing three runs on eight hits while striking out three batters.

The Rockies and Giants will conclude their series Wednesday night at Coors Field. First pitch set for 6:40 MST.

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Kyle Freeland’s fire on display in win over Giants

Christian Clark / BSNDenver.com | May 30, 2018

DENVER — Kyle Freeland was a half-step late.

The second-year lefty already had a five-run cushion to work with and was cruising through the San Francisco Giants’ lineup when he poked a pitch toward second baseman Kelby Tomlinson in the fifth. The outcome looked inevitable, but

Freeland made it interesting by mashing the nitrous button instead of tapping cruise control. When the first-base umpire signaled him out, Freeland ripped off his helmet in disgust.

Coming up short bothers Freeland even when it probably shouldn’t. Perhaps that approach helps explain why the 25-year- old Denver native has found so much success in a place where most pitchers don’t. Freeland helped the Rockies to an

11-4 win over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday, allowing three runs in 5 1/3 innings. A couple mistake pitches in the sixth prevented him from picking up a seventh consecutive quality start, but he still did his part in helping Colorado get off to a 2-0 start to its six-game homestand against a pair of division rivals.

“I love it. I tell all these guys, ‘Be yourself.’ I told that to Kyle last year,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “When I took him out of the game, Desi (Ian Desmond) came to the mound, all the guys did. They pull so hard for him because they know he’s into it. Guys love playing behind guys who play like Kyle. It’s really cool. At times, he sort of plays like a position player. It’s great.”

Freeland needed 69 pitches to get through the first five frames. In the first inning he threw a changeup that caused Buster

Posey to whiff so hard, his bat flew into the netting along third base. Gerardo Parra and Trevor Story both drove in runs in the first. Freeland helped his own cause in the fourth inning by stroking a two-out double to right field. He later scored on a throwing error.

“I was able to get a fastball up in the zone, and it started a little bit of a rally there,” Freeland said. “We scored a few runs.

It helped me out.”

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The Rockies doubled eight times. They took advantage of a Giants pitching staff that saw two of its members exit with injuries. Starter Jeff Samardzija didn’t return after the first inning due to right shoulder soreness. Dereck Rodriguez, the son of legend Ivan Rodriguez, came on for Samardzija. His Major League debut was cut short when he took an Ian Desmond line drive off the leg in the fifth.

San Francisco cut Colorado’s lead to three in next inning when Posey and ripped solo homers off

Freeland. Scott Oberg came on in relief to stop the bleeding. It wasn’t Freeland’s best outing of the season, but it was still enough. His strong play at Coors Field continued. He’s allowed only six runs in 24 2/3 innings at his home park this season.

“He’s a horse,” Carlos Gonzalez said. “He wants to get better. He wants to get good. I think that’s why he’s been successful so far in the big leagues. It’s always nice to have guys like him. He’s always trying to get better. Running balls down the line. Getting upset when he doesn’t get the job done. It’s nice to see that from a young guy.”

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Rockies double down to win second straight against Giants

Drew Creasman / BSNDenver.com | May 29, 2018

DENVER - Coming off a relatively successful road trip that saw the Colorado Rockies win four of nine games, the consternation over the offense was beginning to reach fever pitch.

Some respite from their season-long struggles both with the bats and at home seemed to be in order with the Reds in town, but the hits have kept coming against the San Francisco Giants, powering an impressive 11-4 victory over their divisional foes. They recorded 15 hits, including eight doubles.

Starter Kyle Freeland was unable to extend his quality-start streak but he pitched well early and showcased his athleticism, helping the cause with the bat, putting his team in great position for the eventual big win.

Colorado jumped all over Giants starter Jeff Samardzija in the bottom of the first. Charlie Blackmon---who hit a triple-deck foul ball earlier in the at-bat---settled for a line drive single, and moved to third on a single from Gerardo Parra.

Nolan Arenado put another scare into Samardzija, ripping one just foul down the left-field line. Then, with Parra in motion,

Arenado grounded out to shortstop, scoring the run and staying out of the . Parra came around to score on a triple off the wall in right from Trevor Story, recording his fourth RBI in the last two first innings.

In an unfortunate twist for San Francisco, Samardzija had to come out of the game after just one inning with right shoulder tightness. But the tough news led to a nice story when Dereck Rodriguez, son of Hall-of-Famer Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, entered the game out of the bullpen, making his MLB debut.

The Rockies weren't able to do much against the rookie until the fourth, getting a two-out double from Freeland on a great swing, then finding some help on Kelby Tomlinson's second straight misplay of a Blackmon groundball.

Blackmon was able to move all the way to third on the play when first baseman Brand Belt's attempt to throw him out at second skipped into left field. He scored on a double to right off the bat of the apparently still-hot Parra. And Parra came around on a double off the high wall in right-center by Arenado to make it 5-0, Rockies.

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The Giants got one back in the fifth on a pair of doubles from Mac Williamson and Rodriguez, getting a bit revenge for giving one up to Freeland himself.

Colorado answered in the bottom half with a single from Ian Desmond, another opposite-field double for Ryan McMahon, and a sac fly off the bat of Chris Iannetta. It looked like the Rockies had plated another run on a hustle play from Freeland, attempting to run out a groundball to second base, but upon review, he was narrowly out.

But San Francisco was finally able to break through against Freeland in the sixth, climbing back into the game with a pair of solo blasts from Buster Posey and Evan Longoria. A single from Belt chased Freeland from the game, robbing him of his eighth straight quality start.

The newly recalled Scott Oberg came on and immediately surrendered a double to Mac Williamson, making things tense at Coors Field, and perhaps bringing back memories of the struggles that saw him sent back to Triple-A earlier in the season. But he kept his cool, getting a soft line out from Brandon Crawford and a groundout to first, making a nice play himself to cover the bag, to end the inning.

Mike Dunn allowed the first two batters he faced in the seventh to reach via a single and walk, but got a fly out from Posey and induced a ground ball double play off the bat of Andrew McCutchen.

Colorado regained all the momentum in the bottom of the seventh. Carlos Gonzalez singled to lead things off and stole second base. He scored on a bloop double to right from Desmond who scored on a single up the middle from Iannetta.

David Dahl delivered the dagger with a deep line drive homer over the wall in left-center field, a very difficult spot for lefties to hit home runs to. It was the first pinch-hit home run of his career and came on the first pitch. And just like that, the Rockies were up 10-3.

Longoria got one back, taking Bryan Shaw deep in the eighth, making this the 18th multi-home run game in his illustrious career.

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But the home club even got that one back in the bottom of the frame on a double from Arenado and Gonzalez' eighth base hit in the last three games. That made the final score 11-4.

The Rockies have scored at least five runs in each of their five games so far on this homestand.

They improve to 30-25 on the season, 11-12 at home.

FINAL STATS:

Kyle Freeland: 5.1 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

Scott Oberg: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER

Mike Dunn: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB

Bryan Shaw: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 K

Chris Iannetta: 2-for-3, R, 2 RBI

Ian Desmond 2-for-4, 2 R, 1 RBI

Gerardo Parra: 2-for-5, 2 R, 1 RBI

Nolan Arenado: 2-for-5, R, 2 RBI

Carlos Gonzalez: 2-for-5, R, RBI

David Dahl: 1-for-1, R, RBI, HR (4)

WHAT'S NEXT:

The Rockies look to sweep the series on Wednseday evening. Jon Gray will look to build off his strong finish, and hope to forget his poor start, to his last outing. He faces off against lefty Derek Holland. First pitch at 6:40 Mountain Time.

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Rockies 11, Giants 4: Offense erupts as the bullpen holds at home This one wasn’t a blowout the whole way

Hayden Kane / PurpleRow.com | May 29, 2018

The Colorado Rockies made it 12 out of their last 13 against the San Francisco Giants at Coors Field with another win on

Tuesday night. This one came on the strength of a big night from the offense and the bullpen holding up in key spots en route to an 11-4 win.

The Rockies offense was really good

Every player who strode up to the plate got a hit. Be they a frustrating player or a player we wish we saw more, they got a hit. Nolan Arenado had a pair of doubles, Ian Desmond had two more hits, and Chris Iannetta had a pair of hits as he continues to play better. The only home run for Colorado came off the bench from David Dahl on a beautiful opposite field drive. Ryan McMahon also drove one the other way in this game for a double. Hashtag play the kids.

What was especially encouraging was the team’s ability to do damage with two outs. In one case they had that opportunity because of another trend in this series.

The Giants defense was really bad

Poor Kelby Tomlinson. He had three more errors tonight as the Giants had four as a team. One of those errors led to a three-run, two-out rally for the Rockies in the fourth inning. It’s great to see the Rockies take advantage of those opportunities, and it will be great if we get to see Pablo Sandoval at second base tomorrow.

Key moment - Scott Oberg holds it down

The sixth inning saw Kyle Freeland’s exit and a 6-1 lead shrinking to 6-3 with the tying run at the plate and one out. All of a sudden short on bullpen options, Bud Black turned to the recently recalled Oberg. He got a lineout and a grounder to end the threat, holding the lead and giving the Rockies a chance to pull away later.

Looking ahead

Colorad goes for the sweep on Wednesday with Jon Gray on the mound against Derek Holland for the Giants.

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Rockies prospect Colton Welker regains his power, goes yard for the JetHawks Prospect news and game results from the Rockies minor league affiliates from Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Nick Walsh / PurpleRow.com | May 30, 2018

Colton Welker (no. 5 PuRP) continued to hit the ball well for the Lancaster JetHawks on Tuesday night, going 3-for-4 with a solo home run — his fifth of the year. Colton has now hit in 10 of his last 13 games following a 4-game stretch in which he went hitless. But while Welker keeps racking up hits, there has been a lack of power recently (his only XBH being a double in the previous 12 games before last night’s blast), so it’s good to see him show off some of the muscle that earned him a power grade of 50 from MLB Pipeline coming into this year.

It was mostly a quiet day on the farm for the Rockies, otherwise. Chad Spanbeger had a good day by going 3-for-4 with an RBI double and a (his 11th), Brian Mundell went 2-for-4 with a double of his own, and Rockies number one prospect Brendan Rodgers had a disappointing day at the plate (0-for-5) in a Yard Goats loss.

Top 30 PuRPs

★ ★ ★

Triple-A: 8, Albuquerque Isotopes 1

Raimel Tapia: 0-for-2, 2 K

Yency Almonte (no. 8 PuRP): 4.2 IP (L), 9 H, 6 R, 2 BB, 2 K

Garrett Hampson (no. 9 PuRP): 0-for-4, 2 K

Mike Tauchman (no. 22 PuRP): 1-for-4, 3 K

★ ★ ★

Double-A: Harrisburg Senators 8, Hartford Yard Goats 4

Brendan Rodgers (no. 1 PuRP): 0-for-5, K

Brian Mundell (no. 13 PuRP): 2-for-4, 2B, 2 K

Forrest Wall (no. 16 PuRP): 1-for-4, K

Dom Nuñez (no. 21 PuRP): 0-for-4, BB, K

Wes Rogers (HM PuRP): 1-for-4, SB 2 K

★ ★ ★

High-A: Lancaster JetHawks 7, Inland Empire 66ers 4

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Colton Welker (no. 5 PuRP): 3-for-4, HR, R, RBI

Tyler Nevin (no. 12 PuRP): 1-for-4, R, K

Willie Abreu (no. 26 PuRP): 1-for-4, R, K

★ ★ ★

Low-A: Rome Braves 11, 3

Ryan Vilade (no. 7 PuRP): 1-for-4, RBI, 2 K

Robert Tyler (no. 24 PuRP): 0.1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, BB, K

Chad Spanberger (no. 29 PuRP): 3-for-4, 2B, SB, R, RBI, K

Tommy Doyle (no. 30 PuRP): 1.0 IP, 2 H, K

Sean Bouchard (ninth round, 2017): 1-for-3, BB, K

★ ★ ★

Wednesday Probables

Triple-A Albuquerque: Brett Oberholtzer vs. , 6:35 PM MT

Double-A Hartford: Jack Wynkoop vs. Harrisburg Senators, 5:05 PM MT

High-A Lancaster: TBD vs. Inland Empire 66ers, 7:35 PM MT

Low-A Asheville: Nick Kennedy @ Rome Braves, 11:00 AM MT

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Colorado Rockies: Addressing DJ LeMahieu’s welcome return

Colin Gaiser / RoxPile.com | May 30, 2018

After going on the disabled list on May 14, DJ LeMahieu is expected to return to the Colorado Rockies‘ lineup later this week.

In fact, he could be back as early as Friday’s series opener against the .

LeMahieu boasts a slash line of .279/.350/.457 in 32 games. While his batting average is lower than normal, it’s made up for by his surge in power (he has five home runs and eight doubles). His OPS (.807) would be the second-highest of his career if the season ended today, following his batting-title year of 2016 (.911).

LeMahieu’s return is more than welcome for the Rockies’ frustrating and mediocre offense. But naturally, it presents some difficult lineup questions.

Infielders Daniel Castro or Ryan McMahon are the only reasonable options for sending down to AAA Albuquerque. Noel

Cuevas is a nice offensive surprise (.300/.344/.383), and he’s currently the only right-handed option in the outfield. He deserves a spot on this team.

It’s clear to me that Castro needs more time in AAA. He is overmatched at the plate, slashing .140/.159/.233 in 44 plate appearances with a wRC+ of -24.

Meanwhile, Ryan McMahon looks much better since returning to the lineup on May 26. In 12 plate appearances since then, McMahon has four hits and is swinging at less pitches outside the zone. He told BSN Denver that he felt more relaxed after getting regular at-bats again in Albuquerque, and made some “mental adjustments” to improve his confidence at the plate.

Overall, he is slashing .210/.319/.242 with a wRC+ of 44. With regular playing time, his batting average should go up, while his on-base percentage is already respectable. That kind of plate discipline should encourage those who were disappointed by McMahon’s first 2018 stint with the Rockies.

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However, the crux of the matter: with LeMahieu’s return, it’s difficult to see McMahon getting regular playing time. Ian

Desmond is clearly Manager Bud Black’s everyday player at first base.

The best solution would be to platoon Desmond and McMahon, especially for Desmond’s sake. He is hitting

.238/.300/.476 against left-handed pitching but just .156/.206/.328 against righties while striking out 27.5 percent of the time. Those numbers are even worse at home.

McMahon is slashing .204/.304/.224 in 56 plate appearances against right-handed pitching. Those are poor numbers

(especially the slugging percentage — he has just one extra-base hit against righties), but they will improve as long as he maintains his confident approach and receives more consistent at-bats.

NEXT: There's also an update on when Adam Ottavino's return may be

Unfortunately, Bud Black isn’t always willing to sacrifice the playing time of a struggling veteran for a promising prospect.

But if the Rockies want to build a lead in the tightly contested NL West, it’s probably the right call.

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Colorado Rockies podcast: Offense heating up; Carlos Estevez joins

Noah Yingling / RoxPile.com | May 30, 2018

The Rockie Road podcast continues with another installment after their 11-4 win over the San Francisco Giants.

The offense for the Colorado Rockies finally broke out last night against the San Francisco Giants and after the game, our own Jake Shapiro talked about the win on the next episode of the Rockie Road podcast.

First off, he discusses how Ian Desmond may, just may, be breaking out of his slump, as he went 2-for-5 last night and he is hitting .286 with 5 extra base hits since May 18. However, as Jake notes, not many of these are not hard hits but they are still hits nonetheless. Also, especially when you are playing at Coors Field for half of your games.

Jake also has some comments from Rockies manager Bud Black from the press briefing after the game on Desmond. He mainly talks about his approach at the plate and what he wants it to be and what way be most successful.

Jake also talks about how Carlos Gonzalez, Chris Iannetta, and David Dahl have started to heat up lately. He also discusses Kyle Freeland and his start, in which he went 5 1/3 innings allowing three runs. In fact, in his past seven starts

(including last night), Freeland went 6 1/3 innings or more each of the previous six starts but he has allowed three runs or less in all seven, for an ERA of 2.37.

Jake also touches on Scott Oberg and what he worked on in Triple-A Albuquerque since he was just called up with Adam

Ottavino heading to the DL.

Later, Jake exclusively spoke with Rockies reliever Carlos Estevez, who is currently on the disabled list. He talked with him prior to Wednesday’s game. He talks with him about what being on the disabled list entails as it entails more than you think.

He also talks about throwing triple digits on his fastball and what about the experience when it he first threw 100+ MPH in the minor leagues.

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Jake also asked Estevez whether or not he would like to throw 100+ MPH all the time or hit 500 foot home runs all the time and Estevez answers the question without any hesitation.

He also talks about the mentality of closing out a game and what is needed to close out games. He also talks about what he tries to learn from Greg Holland and Wade Davis the past two seasons about closing games. He also talks about

Mariano Rivera and how he influenced Estevez.

He also talked about some of his favorite teammates, past and present, whether it be in the majors or minors and some

“really smart” guys in the Rockies clubhouse.

They also talk about what is like to play for Bud Black and how Rockies pitching coordinator has influenced him. In addition, they talk about playing baseball in Extended Spring Training and Rookie ball in comparison to minor leagues and major leagues.

You can listen to the podcast below.

As always, you can interact with the podcast by commenting on these podcasts posts, contacting me on Twitter

@Shapalicous or Rox Pile @RoxPileFS, or email the podcast at [email protected].

Follow Rockie Road on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/rockieroad

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