


Home delivery has not been on the Rockies’ menu very often this season. But it was Sunday in their 6-4 victory over the White Sox at Coors Field.
Colorado’s four-run fifth inning, supercharged by Mickey Moniak’s two-run triple and Michael Toglia’s two-run homer, wiped out Chicago’s 4-2 lead.
Moniak — who was 3 for 4 with three RBIs — ended up a double shy of hitting for the cycle. Moniak, who started in center field, led off the first with a home run to right off Shane Smith, Moniak’s 13th homer of the season. He also singled in the seventh. Moniak’s homer was his eighth in his last 20 games.
“I think we are playing better baseball now, and I’ve said that for the past month,” said Moniak, who became the first Rockies player since Carlos Gonzalez on July 31, 2010, to hit a homer, triple, single and have a stolen base in a game.
“We are out there trying to win baseball games now, instead of trying not to lose,” he added.
Manager Warren Schaeffer has become a big Moniak fan.
“He’s got a slow heartbeat,” Schaeffer said. “He’s just a good baseball player and he keeps progressing in the right direction, which is promising.”
Colorado (21-69), the worst team in the National League, avoided being swept by the Sox (30-60), the worst team in the AL. The Rockies improved to 10-36 at Coors Field, where nine of their 10 victories have come in the last game of a three-game series.
Moniak did not downplay the significance of Sunday’s win.
“Today was definitely important,” he said. “That’s a team we feel like we should be beating. I’m sure they think the same about us, but dropping those first two games was tough. To win the third game and salvage the series was huge. We are just building on everything we are trying to do here.”Rockies starter Chase Dollander, still trying to find his big-league footing, had a rough afternoon, some of it bad luck, some of it his own making.
The rookie right-hander issued four walks, including leadoff walks in Chicago’s two-run third and also in its one-run fourth.
His worst piece of luck came in the second when Chase Meidroth hit a sharp grounder that second baseman Thairo Estrada looked poised to turn into a double play, except that the ball hit the second base bag and turned into a fluke RBI double. In the fourth, Brooks Baldwin hit a towering flyball that glanced off the catcher Austin Nola’s glove. Baldwin ended up scoring on Mike Tauchman’s bloop single to right.
Dollander pitched 3 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on five hits. His overall ERA stands at 6.68, but his ERA at Coors Field is 9.37.
“The good was that I saw him battle through (92) pitches, and he tried to do his best to save the bullpen,” Schaeffer said. “But it was only through four innings, so there was a lack of efficiency, a lack of fastball command. It came back to bite him.”
Closer Seth Halvorsen pitched a perfect ninth inning for his eighth save.
The Rockies finished their homestand with a 2-4 record.
They now head to Boston to begin a six-game road trip on Monday before next week’s All-Star Game break.