The Brewers dared the Cave Man, but he brought the big club in the clutch on Monday night.
Jake Cave’s walk-off single in the 10th inning lifted the Rockies to an 8-7 win over the NL Central-leading Brewers in the series opener at Coors Field, giving the Rockies consecutive wins for the first time in a month.
Prior to Cave’s at-bat, the Brewers walked both Brenton Doyle and Nolan Jones to load the bases and get to the veteran, who made Milwaukee pay by lacing former Rockies prospect Joel Payamps’ first-pitch slider to center.
The hit topped off a solid night from the Rockies’ offense, which got two homers from Doyle plus a birthday dinger by Charlie Blackmon while erasing multiple comebacks by the Brewers.
Doyle’s two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the second off Bryse Wilson gave Colorado a 2-0 lead. Doyle, whose bat has shown encouraging progress in his second year, launched Wilson’s hanging sinker 445 feet to the trees in center.
In the third, Nolan Jones made Brewers catcher Eric Haase pay for attempting to stretch a leadoff single when he gunned him at second base, with a play finished off by a slick tag by Brendan Rodgers. Jones’ 101.3 mph assist was the fastest in the majors this year.
Charlie Blackmon followed that crowd-pleaser with a cheer-inducing accomplishment of his own. On his 38th birthday, Blackmon drilled another hanging Wilson sinker 431 feet to center, his third career birthday homer. The others came in 2022 and in 2011, his first career homer.
After the Brewers tagged Austin Gomber for three runs in the fourth via RBI knocks by Jackson Chourio and Blake Perkins that evened the game, Milwaukee took its first lead in the fifth.
William Contreras’ solo homer to right just above the out-of-town scoreboard came two pitches after Brewers manager Pat Murphy was ejected for arguing a call, when Joey Ortiz was ruled out of the base line while dashing to first on a bunt fielded by Gomber. The pitcher missed the tag on Ortiz, who lunged out of the way but appeared to stay within the runners’ lane.
Colorado re-took a 5-4 lead in the fifth thanks to RBIs by Ryan McMahon and Rodgers. Jones added on in the sixth, with a double off left-hander Hoby Milner to score Doyle and push the score to 6-4.
But no lead is safe with the erratic Rockies’ bullpen, and the Brewers plated three runs in the eighth. After Christian Yelich’s triple off Anthony Molina, Willy Adames singled Yelich home, and then Rhys Hoskins’ sacrifice fly off Justin Lawrence scored Adams. Haase followed with a slicing liner over the glove of a leaping McMahon, giving Milwaukee a 7-6 lead.
But Doyle retaliated in the bottom of the inning, this time with a solo homer to right off Elvis Peguero. It marked Doyle’s second career multi-homer game and first this year.
Victor Vodnik set the Brewers down in order in the ninth and Tyler Kinley worked around traffic in the 10th to set up Cave’s heroics that scored California runner Aaron Schunk. The rookie advanced to third on Michael Toglia’s sacrifice fly that prompted the intentional walks to Doyle and Jones.
Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Austin Gomber works against the Milwaukee Brewers in the first inning of a baseball game Monday, July 1, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Updates on Easy Cheese, KB. German Marquez’s return to the Rockies’ rotation is imminent, while Kris Bryant remains a ways off.
Marquez has made five rehab starts in the minors so far in his return from Tommy John surgery, but lasted just 2/3 of an inning in his last outing with Triple-A Albuquerque on Friday. He is back with the club as the Rockies begin their homestand, and is scheduled to fly out to Double-A Hartford for another rehab start later this week.
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From there, the Rockies are likely to activate him at some point during their final road trip before the all-star break, setting Marquez up for his 2024 debut. The Rockies head to Cincinnati for a seven-game road trip on July 8, four against the Reds followed by three against the Mets.
“There’s a bit of schedule involvement in there that might come into play for us,” Black said.
Meanwhile, Bryant is finally starting to ramp up baseball activities. The outfielder/first baseman has been on the injured list since June 3 with a rib and oblique issue. He’s missed 57 of 84 games in his third straight injury-riddled season with the Rockies.
Bryant played catch and hit in the cage on Monday, but there’s still no timetable for his return to the lineup. A rehab stint in Triple-A will be necessary before Bryant comes back to the bigs.
Tuesday’s pitching matchup
Brewers LHP Dallas Keuchel (0-0, 11.25 ERA) at Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (1-7, 5.82)
6:40 p.m. Tuesday, Coors Field
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: 850 AM/94.1 FM
Feltner’s had four decent outings in a row, including a quality start last week with two earned runs through six innings in a loss to Houston. That’s encouraging, especially after his June began by getting blasted for eight runs by the Reds in four-plus innings. He’s been above average at limiting walks and hard hits — he ranks in the 78th percentile in walk percentage among MLB pitchers, and is 74th percentile in barrel rate — while relying on a four-pitch mix of fastball, slider, changeup and sinker. In two starts against Milwaukee, he is 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA, though only a handful of current Brewers have faced him.
Keuchel, 36, looked like a shell of his former Cy Young self in his first and only start this year. Against the Rangers last week, he allowed five runs in four innings with two homers. Milwaukee acquired the two-time all-star from the Mariners last week for the cost of … $1. Keuchel is on the tail-end of his career, as he bounced around between the White Sox, Diamondbacks and Rangers in 2022 and made six starts for the Twins last year, with a 5.97 ERA in 10 appearances. In four games (three starts) against the Rockies, he is 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA, including an 11.74 ERA at Coors Field.
Pitching probables
Wednesday: Brewers RHP Colin Rea (7-2, 3.61) at RHP Dakota Hudson (2-11, 5.84), 6:10 p.m.
Thursday: Brewers RHP Tobias Myers (5-2, 3.26) at Rockies RHP Cal Quantrill (6-6, 3.78), 6:10 p.m.
Friday: Royals LHP Cole Ragans (5-6, 3.33) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (0-3, 7.94), 6:10 p.m.
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