The Rockies wasted no time getting on the board Sunday against the Giants, and that early push carried them into a piece of team history.
Colorado jumped ahead 2-0 in the first inning at San Francisco. Hunter Goodman started it with an RBI groundout that brought in Jake McCarthy, and then TJ Rumfield scored on a throwing error by Giants pitcher Tyler Mahle as he tried to pick off a runner at first.
That first-inning burst gave the Rockies a run in the opening frame for the sixth straight game, according to Rockies Communications on X. It’s the first time they’ve done that since May 29-June 4, 2019.
The streak began Tuesday at home against the Miami Marlins, when Mickey Moniak opened the scoring with a solo home run in a 14-3 loss. Moniak did it again Wednesday in a 6-3 win, then again Thursday in a 14-4 win, giving Colorado a first-inning run in three straight games on his solo shots.
When the Giants arrived Friday, the Rockies kept the run going in a much different way. Colorado scored three times in the first inning of a 15-3 win, with Jake McCarthy hitting a solo home run, Cole Carrigg drawing a bases-loaded walk to bring in Moniak, and Tyler Freeman driving in a run on a ground ball double play.
Saturday brought a change in result, with San Francisco winning 6-4. The Giants scored four runs in the top of the first, and Colorado answered with three in the bottom half on Carrigg’s three-run home run.
The last time the Rockies put together this kind of opening-inning stretch, they were in a very different place. In 2019, they were coming off back-to-back playoff appearances under then-manager Bud Black, and the long playoff drought that has followed - and will most likely become eight years after this season - wasn’t on the horizon.
That 2019 run started May 29 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, when Colorado scored in the first inning of a 5-4 win on a Mark Reynolds fielder’s choice groundout to third base. The next day, the Rockies and Diamondbacks turned Coors Field into a shootout, with Colorado winning 11-10 after both teams scored three times in the first. Daniel Murphy drove in two runs with a single, and Tony Wolters added another with a sacrifice fly.
Colorado then closed May with a 13-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, scoring four times in the first inning behind Trevor Story’s two-run home run and Murphy’s two-RBI double. The streak continued into June with a 4-2 win over Toronto that featured a three-run first inning, with Nolan Arenado singling home a run and Murphy doubling in two more.
On June 2, the Rockies kept it going with a first-inning run in a 5-1 win over Toronto, as Murphy singled in the run. That made it five straight games with a first-inning score, and Colorado was rolling at 31-27 with an eight-game winning streak.
The streak ended June 4 in Chicago, where the Rockies lost 6-3 to the Cubs after scoring once in the top of the first on Murphy’s RBI single. The next day, Colorado lost 9-8 and didn’t score until the sixth inning. The Rockies finished that season 71-91.
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The challenge, of course, is that Colorados draft board is never quite the same as everyone elses. Pitching at altitude remains a special case in Denver, and the club is digging into why some arms translate there while others do not. Recent draft history also gives the front office plenty to weigh, with only Gabriel Hughes on the active roster among the teams recent first-rounders while Chase Dollander is coming back from Tommy John surgery and Jordan Beck and Sterlin Thompson are still in Triple-A. [Read more 🡒]