We continue our countdown of the Top 10 moments from the Colorado Rockies’ 2017 season with a pair of clutch hits. A veteran outfielder who emerged as an MVP candidate takes our seventh spot from a blast that rocked Cleveland, while our honorable mention goes to a game-winner from a rookie hoping he could mimic the career path of that veteran.
Honorable Mention: Just Tapia It In, June 15
Walk-offs are fun. Walk-offs from rookies hoping to be a huge part of their team’s future even more so. Raimel Tapia’s 2017 campaign was a bit odd. Though there were times it was easy to argue he should have been, he never quite cemented himself into the starting lineup. By season’s end, with Gerardo Parra and Ian Desmond finally healthy and Carlos Gonzalez finally productive, Tapia was relegated to sporadic pinch-hit appearances.
But he had a stretch from June 10-July 15 where he was arguably the Rockies’ best hitter.
He slashed .372/.419/.570 over 28 games which was good enough for a wRC+ of 143.
Five days into his ridiculous run, the rookie was called upon to cap off one of the most chaotic contests of the season. With the Rockies’ bullpen coughing up eight runs to the San Francisco Giants in the final three innings, Tapia was suddenly needed in the bottom of the ninth to collect his sixth hit in two games. He did.
The hitting savant used his patented contact approach and lined a game-winning single onto the centerfield grass, scoring Mark Reynolds.
It was an undeniably huge moment in the early career of a promising prospect, but it was also one of many moments Tapia delivered where Colorado needed something to make the postseason by the slimmest of margins.
No. 7: Chuck Rocks Cleveland, August 9
Charlie Blackmon just keeps getting better. It was hard to boil down a season of incredibly consistent output to just one moment for the centerfielder who came in fifth in National League MVP voting in 2017, receiving three first-place votes. And really, even that was worthy of scorn.
On August 1, he made a spectacular, wall-crawling catch to set the stage for a Nolan Arenado walk-off against the New York Mets. In September, all he did was put his name in the record books and on a few different pages.
He set a new mark, in the entire history of MLB, for RBI out of the leadoff spot and he led all of baseball in triples, hits, and runs scored. This is why teammate Carlos Gonzalez made sure he went home with a special piece of Rockies history.
But our pick for his standout moment comes from August 9 in the 12th inning against the Cleveland Indians. Just 20 innings earlier, Blackmon had greeted Cory Kluber, one of the best in the game, with a leadoff home run that almost held up until a late collapse behind a suddenly cracking bullpen. With the fresh taste of missed opportunity still in his mouth, The Bearded One laced a line-drive home run off of Zach McAllister deep over the right-field fence putting Colorado on top 3-2, this time carrying his team across the finish line. It was his 27th homer of the year, a category he would lead the team in, and could easily have been his second decisive blast over a playoff team in as many games.
Arenado wasn’t the only player in purple with a claim to being King in the Clutch. Blackmon posted an OPS of 1.170 with two outs and runners in scoring position and slashed .438/.500/.703 in high-leverage situations in 2017. He did only hit three home runs in such situations, which might help explain why he wasn’t seen on the national highlight reels as much as some other players. But this one was huge and its brilliance cannot be denied.
This rocketed-round-tripper was emblematic of Blackmon’s inclusion in the MVP conversation, again alongside his third baseman. Often insistent on properly serving the role of tone setter, he is usually the guy that starts the rally or gets the job done early. But after having to rub dirt in the callouses of a still-fresh defeat, the Rockies most hard-working, blue-collar, no-frills player finally got to play the hero. He didn’t just set the table, he flipped the damn thing over and proudly proclaimed, like Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, “I’m finished!” It was as much an exaltation as a celebration, signaling a team that had entered a new era where they expected to win these kinds of games.
The moment itself was everything Blackmon is. It was resilient and persistent. It was understated but not without bombast. It was somehow quiet and loud at the same time. It was a bit overlooked but absolutely crucial for the success of this team.
