It’s ridiculously early to proclaim the birth of a Rockies renaissance. Heck, just four games ago they were mired in a seven-game home losing streak.
But signs of hope keep popping up.
On a 49-degree Saturday night in front of 34,362 at Coors Field, the Rockies notched their third victory in a row, beating the New York Mets 7-4 behind a workmanlike start from Eddie Butler and a string of timely, early hits.
“I said at the beginning of the homestand that I thought as we got deeper into the season that we would start to turn it around,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. “We’ve got a long way to go, but we are playing better.”
Colorado climbed back to .500 at 18-18. After 36 games last season, they were 14-22. So there is progress.
Butler did not dominate as his friend Jon Gray did Friday night, when Gray confounded the Mets for seven innings with 98 mph heat and a wicked slider, but Butler was good enough. He pitched five-plus innings, getting charged for four runs on nine hits. He struck out three and didn’t walk any. He was rocked by a solo homer by Neil Walker in the fourth. Butler hung a 77 mph curveball that Walker tattooed to deep right field.
Most important, Butler claimed his first victory at Coors Field since April 24, 2015, snapping an ugly stretch of five LoDo starts in which he went 0-4 with a 7.61 ERA.
“(Injured catcher Nick) Hundley came up to me after the game and told me, ‘You might not have thrown the ball as well tonight as you wanted to, but you didn’t let things get out of hand,’ ” Butler said. “He said, ‘You have up a solo home run, but you got right back into the inning and attacked pretty quickly.’ Again, I think it goes along with my confidence. It wasn’t that ‘here we go again’ feeling.”
Stellar bullpen work by Boone Logan, Carlos Estevez and closer Jake McGee salted the game away. McGee gave up a single in the ninth but quickly shut the door to earn his 11th save in 13 chances.
“A lot of that is dictated by the start,” Weiss said. “You get a good start, he gets into the sixth, or beyond, and the pieces fall into place. When you have to use the bullpen for four-plus innings, that’s when it start to get out of whack.”
Even the baseball gods — or perhaps just hard of hearing home-plate umpire Carlos Torres — seemed to be on Colorado’s side in a five-run third inning. After DJ LeMahieu drew the first bases-loaded walk of his career to score Nolan Arenado, catcher Tony Wolters stepped to the plate.
Wolters struck out swinging on a slider by New York starter Logan Verrett, but Torres mistakenly ruled a foul tip. Mets manager Terry Collins argued and was ejected, and Wolters promptly smashed a two-run double.
Said Collins: “I said, ‘Well, if the hitter fouls the ball off, he’s going to point to the ground or he’s going to say something. He turned around and walked out.’ He said, ‘Well, I heard it.’ I said, ‘You couldn’t have heard it, because he didn’t foul it off.’ … It doesn’t matter what I said. It doesn’t matter what he heard. The call stood. You can’t challenge it. It cost us the game. End of story.”
Next, Charlie Blackmon laced a two-run single to give the Rockies a 7-1 lead. Blackmon extended his hitting streak to 11 games.
Colorado’s offense, as it is wont to do too often, went largely silent after the breakout third inning. It managed just one hit — a leadoff single by LeMahieu in the fifth — until pinch-hitter Ryan Raburn punched a single to center with one out in the eighth.
The Rockies, who had lost 11 consecutive games to the Mets entering the series, will go for the three-game sweep Sunday afternoon.
