June 13, 1995: Colorado Rockies 6, Cincinnati Reds 4

The Colorado Rockies welcomed the Cincinnati Reds to Coors Field twenty years ago today, winning 6-4 and starting a historic streak of sellouts in the process.

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The Colorado Rockies have long enjoyed some of the best fan following in baseball, at least for a relatively young team, and especially when compared to other young teams like the Marlins, Rays, and Diamondbacks. All that fan support can be traced back to the very early days, when Coors Field was brand new and the Rox were powerful — the era of the Blake Street Bombers.

In fact, we can trace that fan support back to, in a way, one very specific day — June 13, this day, exactly twenty years ago. It was on June 13, 1995, that Rockies fans sold out Coors Field for a normal Tuesday evening game against the Cincinnati Reds. It was the first of a record 203 consecutive sellouts at Coors Field, spanning more than two full seasons afterwards.

On this day, twenty years ago, fans were treated to a power show, as the Rox — behind starter Kevin Ritz — won 6-4 over the strong Cincinnati Reds and starter Kevin Pugh.

Andres Galarraga hit two home runs in the game — a two-run shot in the fourth, and a  solo homer in sixth — to ward off the Reds’ two home runs (remember Reggie Sanders and Jeff Branson?!).

Ritz threw seven strong innings for the Rockies, allowing three runs on six hits (what hitter’s park?!) and Curtis Leskanic, of all people, got a two-inning save, even though he allowed a homer in the ninth to make the game a little bit closer than it needed to be.

The Rockies left the game with a 26-19 record, having just defeated a team that was at that point 29-15 and would finish the strike-shortened season 85-59, winning the NL Central. The Rox, of course, went to the playoffs for the first time in 1995, after finishing 77-67, where they were defeated by the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series.

For your nostalgic enjoyment…

The box score of the game twenty years ago today.

And some vids of Galarraga going long-ball, with this leading off, because the Rockies are in Miami this weekend:

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