The Rockies talked a good game before hosting the Twins Friday night at Coors Field. Phrases like “fresh start” and “new beginning” were bandied about.
Then the Rockies went out and beat the Twins, 6-4, in their first game after the All-Star break. Left fielder Jordan Beck opened up the second half in spectacular fashion.
Beck, 24, came up a double short of becoming the 10th Rockies player to hit for the cycle. He had a chance to complete the feat in the eighth but was called out on strikes, though two of the pitches from reliever Travis Adams were clearly out of the strike zone.
Beck insisted that he didn’t know he was a double shy of the cycle.
“I would have swung the bat in my last (at-bat) if I’d have known,” he said. “He also threw two balls that were called as strikes, so that didn’t help.”
He said no one in the dugout told him he needed just a double to make history.
“Sometimes you just know, but that was one of those times I wasn’t paying attention,” Beck said.
Manager Warren Schaeffer, who said before the game that the team was eager to put the bad behind it after posting a 22-74 record before the All-Star break, was thrilled with Beck’s performance and excited to see what comes next.
“I feel like, all year, he’s been growing into a (more consistent) hitter,” Schaeffer said. “For me, the sky is the limit for Jordan Beck. So it’s good to see nights like this. Fantastic night for him.”
Beck hit an RBI triple off Minnesota starter Chris Paddock in Colorado’s four-run first inning, just past diving right fielder Willi Castro. Tyler Freeman led off with a double, Mickey Moniak followed with another double, Beck tripled, and Ryan McMahon launched a two-run homer to right, his 14th of the season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the first time in franchise history that Colorado began a game with four consecutive extra-base hits.
In the second, Beck blasted a two-out, solo homer off Paddock, getting a green light on a 3-0 pitch and launching it 448 feet to center. In the fifth, Beck scratched out an infield single to third baseman Royce Lewis.
Beck stepped to the plate with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth but popped out to shortstop Carlos Correa in shallow center field.
The last Rockies player to hit for the cycle was outfielder Charlie Blackmon on Sept. 30, 2018, vs. the Nationals at Coors Field. Blackmon led off the game with a triple, then hit a home run, single and double to become the first player in major league history to cycle in the 162nd game of the season. The Rockies beat the Nationals 12-0 that day, setting up a one-game playoff with the Dodgers to decide the National League West title.
Friday night, Colorado was in complete control through six innings, leading 6-1 behind lefty Kyle Freeland’s strong start. Minnesota’s only run off Freeland was a one-out, solo homer by Byron Buxton in the fifth. Freeland went six innings, giving up five hits, walking three, and striking out three. All three strikeouts came in the sixth with two men on base, and he was pumped up.
“(That was about) polishing off a good start, and I knew what was probably going to be my last inning and I knew I could empty that tank right there,” said Freeland, who got just his second win and paired his ERA from 5.44 to 5.19.
“That’s exactly what we needed to start the second half,” Schaeffer said. “He had (good) fastball command, in and out. Good pitch mix. Good plan with (catcher Austin) Nola.
“Kyle only had three punchouts, but they were the last three hitters, with traffic. That’s a gutsy performance. Nice job by ‘Free.’ ”
However, the Twins put a scare into the Rockies in the seventh against reliever Jake Bird with Willi Castro’s three-run homer. Buxton started the rally with a one-out, infield hit that died in the grass in front of third baseman Ryan McMahon. Ryan Jeffers followed with a bloop single to shallow right off the glove of a sprinting Tyler Freeman. Then Castro hit Bird’s first-pitch sinker 439 feet and into the forest beyond the center-field wall.
But Rockies right-handers Victor Vodnik and Seth Halvorsen blanked the Twins over the last two innings, and Halvorsen pocketed his ninth save.
