Colorado Rockies flashback: Blackmon, Dickerson flash power vs. Reds

On this date in 2014, Charlie Blackmon and Corey Dickerson of the Colorado Rockies showed that it isn’t just at Coors Field where the Rockies can strike quickly to open the game.

Taking on the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park, Charlie Blackmon and Corey Dickerson opened the Colorado Rockies scoring with back-to-back home runs to begin the contest, helping the Rockies to an 11-2 victory.

Dickerson finished the game 4-for-5 with four RBI and a pair of homers, hitting his first-inning bomb off Reds starter Alfredo Simon on a full count after Blackmon had launched one into the seats just before him on an 0-2 pitch.

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Colorado finished the contest with five homers, including three off Simon. Dickerson and Troy Tulowitzki also went back-to-back in the sixth inning off Reds reliever J.J. Hoover, accounting for the other two long balls.

The game marked Dickerson’s first career multi-homer contest.

Rockies starter Jordan Lyles was the beneficiary of Colorado’s power surge, getting the win and moving to 5-0 on the season with a 2.66 ERA. In his 103-pitch performance that lasted six innings, Lyles put up plenty of numbers in his line score, scattering four hits and walking four while striking out eight.

Lyles also helped his own cause, inducing a pair of big double plays to get out of jams. That included the second inning when, with Colorado holding that 2-0 lead thanks to Blackmon and Dickerson, Joey Votto led off the frame with a homer and Ryan Ludwick and Roger Bernadina earned two-out walks. Lyles, however, got Zack Cozart to end the inning by hitting into a 4-6-3 double play.

The win would be the only one for the Rockies in the midst of a six-game stretch and the 11 runs scored in the victory would be more than Colorado would score combined (six runs) in the five losses that surrounded it during what would be a 66-96 campaign.