Colorado Rockies: 3 statistics we bet you didn’t know

There are times that Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black will describe an interesting situation or head-scratching moment as, “That’s just baseball.” A weird hop? Something that hasn’t happened in a game for years? Well, that’s just baseball, Black says. The quirks and strange happenings are just part of the game we all love.

There have been some of those “That’s just baseball” moments for the Rockies lately. There are some statistics and moments that you look at and wonder not only how they happened … but also become very thankful that someone at Elias Sports or other statistical entities keeps track of who does what and when.

Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting numbers we have seen in recent games for the Rockies.

Two is close to three, but not close enough

On Friday night, in a 9-1 throttling of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Nolan Arenado, Mark Reynolds, Charlie Blackmon and Trevor Story each hit a home run for the Rockies. All of those long balls came with two strikes and two outs in the inning. With that feat, the Rockies became the first team in 13 years to hit four two-out, two-strike home runs in one game. The Texas Rangers had four home runs with similar counts and inning scenarios on July 4, 2004 at Houston. Alfonso Soriano, Hank Blalock, Kevin Mench and Mark Teixeira hit those homers.

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Speaking of three…

When Reynolds hit his homer on Friday night, he became just the third active Major League player to hit 30 homers in a season for three different teams. The 34-year-old Reynolds has accomplished the feat with Arizona, Baltimore and now Colorado.

By the way, the other two players are Nelson Cruz and Curtis Granderson. Reynolds and Granderson (now with the Dodgers) are opposing each other this weekend at Coors Field. They could go against each other in the NLDS next week.

Nazty and Nolan

Blackmon is the third Major League leadoff hitter since 1914 to collect 85 or more extra base hits. His 86 extra-base hits are a National League record for a leadoff hitter, and the most since Grady Sizemore set the Major League mark with 92 in 2006.

Next: CarGo discusses the season and its ups and downs

Additionally, Arenado has 87 extra-base hits this season. That means the Rockies are the first team since the 2004 Boston Red Sox (David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez) to have two players with at least 85 extra-base hits.