Rockies Notebook: Márquez finds momentum, Bryant's comeback trail and more postseason baseball

There is not a lot that the Colorado Rockies have in common with the Minnesota Twins.

Heck, the two teams haven’t even orchestrated a trade together in over a decade. (Anyone remember the Kevin Slowey deal from Dec 2011 that kept the right-handed starter around for 46 days before he was promptly shipped to Cleveland?)

The first general manager of the franchise, Bob Gebhard, was plucked from the Minnesota’s front office soon after winning the 1991 World Series while long-time Twins’ Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau spent a decade in the Land of 10,000 Lakes before moving to the Mile High City.

Current Rockies C.J. Cron, Alex Colomé and Tyler Kinley all spent a season or less with the Target Field denizens during their careers.

Otherwise, it’s not often these two franchises cross paths in any shape or form.

For just the sixth time since interleague play pitted clubs from the American League against those from the National League, Colorado and Minnesota are doing battle during the final weekend of June. For just the fourth time, this contest in the Twin Cities. 

The first victory for the Rockies in this less-than-storied series came at the now-defunct Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome back in 2003 and was a lot like their most recent win on Friday night: a three-hit shutout played in under 140 minutes.

Colorado is 8-9 against Minnesota all-time and 5-6 in Minneapolis. The last time the Twins visited Coors Field was 2014.

The so-called balanced schedule next season should ensure more reciprocation. 

Márquee Performance

The glimpses of the Germán Márquez from 2021 have been flashing much more frequently over the 27-year-old’s previous four starts.

Colorado is 4-0 during those outings and the 6.71 ERA he opened the month with has been reduced by a whole run (now 5.58).

On Friday night, he put it all together and was unhittable for long stretches at a time. The five free passes (a career-high on the road) didn’t help the questions about his command, but the overall product was still special.

Absolutely no one was paying attention to this regular season baseball game, especially considering the club was 10-games under .500, as all eyes focused on whether the Colorado Avalanche could win Game 5 to secure the Stanley Cup.

Yet, with the Twins unable to record a hit entering the fifth inning, some began to take the slightest peak at the Rockies’ box score. (Ryan Jeffers’ double with two outs in the fifth removed any need to check back and a scoring change from back in the fourth inning put a second hit on the board.)

Overall, it was a unique performance. The previous three-hitter against an AL foe on the road was in 2020 during the Ryan Castellani’s MLB debut. About two weeks prior to that, Márquez was a part of the last one.

Colorado eventually pushed a run across the plate to win the opening game of this series 1-0. A review of the history books shows this as only the 23rd game in franchise history with that result. 

Remember the last time the Rockies won 1-0? If you guessed it was another Márquez start, you’d be right: April 3, 2019 in Tampa Bay.

But what about the pitcher before that?

You probably should think everything means something, but since you asked, the date was on July 14, 2018 and the game was started by Tyler Anderson… or the probable starter on Monday for the Los Angeles Dodgers when they travel to Colorado to begin a three-game set.

Dude, Where’s My Kris Bryant?

In the week leading up to the series at Target Field, manager Bud Black felt Kris Bryant would most likely return to action follow two IL stints for a lower back strain.

since missing a total of 49 games (Sunday will be 50) due to a back strain. 

By Saturday afternoon, it became clear that the plan had changed and Bryant would miss his 50th game of the season on Sunday.

Before that affair, the new timeline was to have him back in Colorado on Monday for further evaluation if he’ll be able to play against the Dodgers that night. 

Through four games this week with the ‘Topes against the Las Vegas Aviators, the 30-year-old left fielder is 1-for-13 with a double, two walks and seven strikeouts.

Also on the comeback trail is long reliever Ty Blach, made the first of two rehab appearances on Wednesday night for a left wrist strain. He surrendered four runs on six hits over 1.2 innings.

Diamond Details

• Saturday’s 6-0 loss marked the 26th time Colorado was held to one-hit or less. A single by Cron in the second inning was the only thing standing between Chris Archer and company joining Al Leiter (1996), Hideo Nomo (1996) and Clayton Kershaw (2014) as the only players to throw a no-hitter against the boys in purple.
• Led by top prospects C/1B Hunter Goodman, 3B Warming Bernabel and SS Adael Amador the Rockies’ Low-A affiliate Fresno Grizzlies won the first half in the California League’s Northern Division.
  • The best record in the entire league (41-25) marks the first time in Grizzlies’ history that the team had made consecutive postseasons. According to the club, the last time Fresno baseball made it to the postseason in back-to-back years were the Fresno Cardinals in 1955-1956.