DENVER — It’s not as if the Rockies’ emerging lineup force Jordan Beck had any collegiate familiarity with — or, as far as anyone knows — Southeastern Conference contempt for Pirates right-handed ace Paul Skenes.
It’s true that Beck played at Tennessee, and Skenes finished up at LSU, and those teams have healthy and mutual contempt. But Skenes left the Air Force Academy and landed at LSU in 2023. The Rockies plucked Beck from the Vols 38th overall in ‘22.
Either way, Beck had Skenes’ number Saturday afternoon, with a walk, a single and a game-changing three-run homer during a six-run sixth inning in a 8-5 victory. It occurred a day after the Rockies faced a nine-run deficit before their first turn at bat, yet won, 17-16, on Brenton Doyle’s two-run walk-off homer.
This Beck-led rebound was not as flamboyant an exercise — except the 1.83 ERA that the All-Star Skenes brought to Coors Field made it seem unlikely that the Rox would snatch the game under his watch.
Skenes had a 4-0 lead — three runs coming on two of Liover Peguero three homers, with the first two off starter Austin Gomber — and eight strikeouts entering the sixth, when Mickey Moniak singled and Ezequiel Tovar walked. Beck’s first-inning walk and fourth inning, one-out single gave the Rockies their only baserunners to that point. With runners finally aboard, Beck jumped on Skenes’ middle-middle, 98.7 mph sinker and drove it off the top of the fence and into the Rockies’ bullpen in right field for his 13th home run of the season.
The homer was the first of more than two runs in the 46 starts of Skenes’ already stellar Major League career.
Beck has reached base in 15 of his last 18 games, and is coming off a sizzling July with a .314 batting average. The performance has solidified Beck as the No. 3 hitter in the lineup of interim manager Warren Schaeffer, who took over for Bud Black in May and set about convincing the Rox that the past months are largely irrelevant.
Ask him about the 30-80 record, and he’ll tell you the Rox are 8-6 since the All-Star break. And his mostly young squad will back him. The Rockies have won just three series at home — the last three, all after the All-Star break.
From Beck’s homer, Warming Bernabel doubled to chase Skenes. The hit gave Bernabel eight extra-base hits in his first seven Rockies career games for a club record. Trevor Story had seven extra-base hits in his first seven games in 2016. Reliever Braxton Ashcraft absorbed RBI hits from Brenton Doyle and Austin Nola (a double), and an RBI fielder’s choice from Thairo Estrada.
