The times might be a-changin’ for the Rockies, thanks, in part, to a candid team meeting.
Sparked by Mickey Moniak’s two-run homer in the seventh and a 15-hit attack, the Rockies beat the Dodgers, 9-6, on a perfect spring Sunday in front of a crowd of 42,627 at Coors Field.
For the second straight game, it was Colorado, not the two-time defending World Series champions, that delivered when it mattered. The Rockies beat the Dodgers 4-3 on Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 47,925.
The roots of the mini-revival can be traced to the meeting between the struggling offense and manager Warren Schaeffer, along with hitting coaches Brett Pill and Jordan Pacheco. It came on the heels of a 3-1 loss to the Astros in Houston last Wednesday. Colorado had just three hits, struck out 15 times, and was 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position. The Rockies had 20 swings and misses.
The meeting wasn’t fire-and-brimstone, but it was effective.
“We talked as men,” Moniak said Sunday after hitting his team-leading sixth homer. “It definitely wasn’t a panic meeting. It was like, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on, this is what we are seeing. (There are) a lot of good things, but this is stuff we can improve on. And let’s talk about. Let’s figure out how we can do it as a team.’
“I think that’s where ‘Schaeff’ is incredible. He really allows us to rally around each other, and he pushes us in the right direction. He’s all about open dialogue, and it’s been a blessing.”
Moniak stressed that the players led the meeting, but said that Schaeffer and his coaches had input.
“We just talked about what we needed to do as a team,” Moniak said. “Team baseball always wins, and we want to figure out how to do that.”
Have the words transferred to the batter’s box?
“Yeah, 100%,” Moniak said. “I was fortunate last year with the Angels to have a presentation from Albert Pujols — one of the greats — and his whole mindset, and his whole approach at the plate was to have a good at-bat, every single at-bat. “That was his only focus, and he knew if he did that 600 times a year, he was going to be in a good spot.”
The Rockies are in a good spot right now, at least at home. They improved to 9-13 overall and 6-3 at Coors Field, where they have won six of their last seven. Sunday marked their first back-to-back wins against the Dodgers in a single season since taking three in a row at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 2-4, 2022.
“The goal is to maintain that energy every day,” Schaeffer said. “Start fresh tomorrow. Then start fresh the next day. These guys love each other, and they are pulling for each other every day, and that creates energy.”
The Rockies’ seventh-inning rally began with a leadoff double by Edouard Julien off right-hander Blake Treinen. Up stepped Moniak, who clobbered Treinen’s first-pitch sweeper 428 feet. A double by Hunter Goodman and an RBI single by Tyler Freeman gave the Rockies a two-run cushion.
Naturally, there was some LoDo drama.
Los Angeles’ Andy Pages and Hyeseong Kim singled in the eighth off reliever Jimmy Herget, and Alex Freeland blasted a ball to deep center field. But Brenton Doyle, inserted for defensive purposes, ran the ball down for the final out.
The ninth was a nail-biter. Shohei Ohtani led off with a ground-rule double off Victor Vodnik and scored on Will Smith’s single. The Dodgers packed the bases on an infield hit by Max Muncy and a walk by Vodnik. Pinch-hitter Daulton Rushing’s groundout scored a run, but Ryan Ward flied out to Troy Johnston in right field, who made a diving catch to close out Colorado’s win.
Colorado had bought some much-needed insurance with its three-run eighth. They needed it. The big hit was a two-run, bases-loaded single by Julien, who went 3 for 5 with three RBIs.
“It was big. We needed the (runs),” Schaeffer said. “You need every run you can get against the Dodgers.”
L.A. took a short-lived 4-3 lead against right-handed reliever Antonio Senzatela in the sixth on Alex Freeland’s run-scoring single to right. It was the first run of the season allowed by Senzatela in six appearances.
Right-hander Michael Lorenzen delivered a workmanlike, five-inning start for the Rockies. The fact that he pitched five innings and left with the game tied 3-3 was a step forward for Lorenzen, who has a 7.48 ERA after five starts (six appearances). Lorenzen was tagged for seven hits, walked one, and struck out three.
“I have been working really hard to get my body moving the right way, and I feel like we are making progress,” he said.
The Dodgers scored two off Lorenzen in the third on a double by Kim, an RBI single by Alex Freeland, and an RBI double by Ohtani. The double extended Ohtani’s on-base streak to 51 consecutive games, moving him past “Wee” Willie Keeler for third all-time in Dodgers franchise history (since 1900). Only Hall of Famer Duke Snider (58 games in 1954) and Shawn Green (53 in 2000) are ahead of Ohtani.
Rookie first baseman TJ Rumfield drove in Colorado’s first run with a single in the fourth, and Colorado tied the game, 3-3, in the fifth on a 448-foot solo homer to left by Kyle Karros and an RBI single by Julien to score Jake McCarthy, who doubled.
The Dodgers and Rockies play the final game of the four-game series on Monday night at Coors.
Pitching probables
Monday: Dodgers LHP Justin Wrobleski (2-0, 2.12) at Rockies LHP Jose Quintana (0-1, 5.63), 6:40 p.m.
Tuesday: Padres RHP Randy Vasquez (1-0, 2.49) at Rockies TBD, 6:40 p.m.
Wednesday: Padres RHP Walker Buehler (1-1-, 4.58) at Rockies RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (1-1, 3.92), 6:40 p.m.
TV: Rockies.TV
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