DENVER — One-thousand career victories as a manager is an impressive milestone, but the Rockies’ 9-4 victory over the Dodgers was no doubt a bigger deal for Bud Black.
At least in the moment. He can relish the milestone somewhere down the road. Black became the 66th manager in major league history to get 1,000 wins.
On a raw, windy Sunday afternoon at Coors Field, where nearly every flyball became an adventure, the Rockies got a pair of two-run homers from C.J. Cron and Elias Diaz and a shutdown performance by their bullpen to clinch the three-game series.
Beating the Dodgers at Coors had become something of a Holy Grail for the Rockies, considering that they had not won a series against them since Aug. 9-12, 2018 — a string of eight consecutive series losses to Los Angeles.
Black, the only manager in club history to lead the Rockies to back-to-back playoff seasons (2017-18), won 649 games managing San Diego from 2007 through the early part of the 2015 season. His record with the Rockies is now 351-360.
The Rockies jumped out to a 6-0 lead after three innings, chasing Dodgers left-hander Julio Urias with no outs recorded in the third.
Colorado’s first big blow came in the first on a two-run line drive by Ryan McMahon that Dodgers left fielder Chris Taylor misplayed in the wind. McMahon was originally credited with a two-run double but the official scorer later changed the call to an error on Taylor.
Cron’s 445-foot, two-run homer to left off of Urias in the third — and into the teeth of the wind — put Colorado ahead, 5-0. Elias Diaz added an RBI single to make it 6-0.
Diaz’s two-run homer in the seventh put Colorado ahead. 9-4, and salted away the victory.
The Dodgers had roared back with a four-run fourth, keyed by a three-run error by new Rockies left fielder Kris Bryant.
L.A. pushed across its first run on Taylor’s sacrifice fly off starter Antonio Senzatela. The Colorado right-hander gave up nine hits in just 3 1/3 innings of work but danced around trouble. He departed with one out and the bases loaded, giving way to Jhoulys Chacin.
Chacin struck out Mookie Betts and should have been out of the inning when Freddie Freeman hit a high flyball to Bryant in left. Bryant appeared to be camped under the ball, but the wind carried the ball and it glanced off Bryant’s glove, allowing three runs to score.
