DENVER — The Rockies and Giants play each other 19 times a year. 

There are no secrets, especially in a game with advanced scouting. The Rockies know that the Giants have one of the deepest lineups paired with a stellar pitching staff. Yet for the past 12 meetings, the Rockies haven’t been able to crack them, as the Giants continued to out-play them. 

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But on Wednesday, the Rockies overcame all that, beating the Giants 5-3 and snapping the 12-game losing streak to their NL West competitor. Colorado played a clean game, not committing any defensive errors, and had a good pitching performances throughout — two things that have plagued the Rockies during this homestand. 

“It was a good team win,” manager Bud Black said. “When we play a good clean game, we win.”

They can now exhale heading into their off day, before beginning a series with the New York Mets, the second-best team in the National League. 

“We haven’t been playing the best baseball lately,” CJ Cron said. “To be able to get that one today, especially against those guys who we haven’t had much success against, it was a big game.”

The Rockies were down for most of the game, despite starting off with a 2-0 lead after a Charlie Blackmon home run in the first. They got a solid start from Kyle Freeland, who gave up three in six innings. He ran into traffic in five of those innings, but, for the most part, was able to get himself out of it. 

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It was Giants’ starter Logan Webb who stumped the Rockies offense though. After the first inning, the Rockies didn’t get another hit until the eighth. Connor Joe, pinch-hitting for the debuting Brian Serven, broke that streak to open the inning. Yonathan Daza then extended his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games with a RBI single to tie the game. 

Then came Cron. He blasted a two-run, no-doubter to left field. The balll landed just shy of hitting the concourse. It was his NL-leading 10th home run of the season, but his first in over two weeks. 

“Just excitement,” Cron said on what his feelings as he ran the bases. “We’re all in this together. It hasn’t been the best run for us here recently. To be able to score some runs late, Freeland did a great job. And to be able to get him back, I think was huge.”

Serven Debut

Brian Serven has caught for Freeland multiple times. Those games were all low-stake situations though, a spring training outing or a rehab start. 

Wednesday was different. 

In his MLB debut, with the Rockies jaded from their losing streak, Serven caught Freeland and batted ninth. It didn’t hit him that he was a major leaguer until right before the game, he said, when he was warming up with Freeland in the bullpen. 

“I was like ‘this is real, I’m going to go out there and play in a big league game,'” he said. “It was a cool feeling.”

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Freeland was impressed with Serven’s first outing, especially the effort he put into getting to know him. Serven went over to Freeland after every inning, asking questions and checking in on how he could improve in the next frame. 

“He did a great job,” Freeland said. “He’s one of those guys who wants to learn. I was very happy to have him back there today, to pitch to him and to continue to learn this game.”

Bryant set for return

Kris Bryant, the Rockies $180 million acquisition, is set to return from his back strain on Friday. Bryant went 1-for-4 in his second rehab game with Triple-A Albuquerque on Wednesday. Reliever Ashton Goudeau was optioned to clear a roster spot.