MIAMI — Denver has been a city of full closets and pitchforks. Fans have either been embarrassed by the Rockies or ready to push them and their front office into a pothole on Blake Street.
Dread replaced hope this month as the Rockies went from an intriguing club to a morbid curiosity. How bad could it get?
For one muggy Wednesday night in Miami, the slide halted, the Rockies thumping the Marlins 8-4 to end a six-game losing streak, while posting just their fifth win in 21 games.
“It might sound stupid, but it was a big win for us, especially with an off day (today). You don’t want to spend that with two sweeps wearing on you mentally,” shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said. “Are we anywhere close to where we want to be? Obviously not. But this is a step in the right direction.”
The Rockies have spent the past three weeks twisting the knife on their season, losing early, losing late, and losing fans with each passing day.
The series finale revealed the blueprint required if they aspire to mediocrity rather than their first 100-loss season. One number explained the difference between this game and the previous week: 6.
That’s how many innings Alex White worked. The Rockies are 11-8 when their starter reaches that threshold. They are 5-19 when it doesn’t happen. White wasn’t painting with a small brush, still fighting some command issues. But he issued only one walk — saying something on a staff that has granted a baseball-worst 95 free passes this month — and he punched an opponent in a throat. After the Rockies erupted for four runs in the fifth inning, the right-hander cut through the Marlins in order. Finally, the Rockies could exhale when returning to the dugout.
“I was going to throw strikes and make them put the ball in play,” said White, who has performed well in his past two outings, making a statement to stick in the rotation. “I had to get through six and get the ball to the bullpen.”
White, who won for the first time since Sept. 11, 2011, attacked the strike zone with his sinker, a pleasant change from a staff that has been leaning too heavily on breaking pitches earlier in counts and games.
White had a cushion to protect because Carlos Gonzalez and Tulowitzki, one of baseball’s most dynamic forces, finally went off on the same night. The pair were a combined 4-for-8 with six RBIs.
Tulowitzki, who homered and doubled, drove in four. He had five RBIs in the Rockies’ previous 20 games.
“I told him that that stranger hitting behind me in the lineup is starting to look like Troy Tulowitzki,” Gonzalez said. “I am not even worried about him. I know he’s going to be a guy who can carry us. But I need him and the team needs him.”
On a team littered with underachievers, Gonzalez has posted numbers that will earn him all-star consideration. He’s hitting .306 with a team-best 34 RBIs. Tulowitzki is the next closest with 23 runs driven in, a problematic formula for the cleanup hitter.
This series has shown glimpses of improvement for the shortstop as he homered off a left-hander, whom he’s hit at a .130 clip this season. He also squared up several fastballs, including his sixth home run, a rocket off Marlins starter Carlos Zambrano’s faulty cutter. That three-run shot matched the number of runs that the right-hander had given up this month in his previous 30 innings entering Wednesday.
Six innings from a starter. Six RBIs from the middle of the order. Six-game losing streak over.
“We have seen it before when we get on that roll and we can carry the team,” Tulowitzki said. “It’s been awhile.”
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1294 or trenck@denverpost.com
