Colorado Rockies: 3 things you might have missed over the weekend

With the Independence Day holiday and Nolan Arenado’s return to Coors Field, there was plenty going on this weekend when it comes to the Colorado Rockies and their minor league affiliates. So much so, in fact, that you might have missed a few bits of news about the franchise.

Let’s dive into three things regarding the Colorado Rockies you may have overlooked this weekend.

A strange and untimely injury

We will start with some news on Rockies pitching prospect Ryan Rolison, who has had a rough few weeks when it comes to injuries. After having his appendix removed and working his way back from that, the 23-year-old southpaw was hit in the hand by a fly ball while shagging batting practice with Triple-A Albuquerque. The ball broke a knuckle on his left middle finger (throwing hand), so he won’t be able to start throwing again until the very end of this month or start of August.

Could the pair of setbacks keep Rolison from making his Major League debut in 2021? It’s certainly possible, considering he has just six Triple-A career starts under his belt.

Quite a comeback in Fresno

Trailing 9-2 heading into the eighth inning, the Fresno Grizzles, the Low-A affiliate for the Rockies, hit four home runs in the final two frames, including a walk-off blast from Grant Lavigne, ranked as Colorado’s 12th overall prospect by MLB.com, to take a 10-9 win over Rancho Cucamonga.

Lavigne didn’t just hit a homer, but he hit a laser to right that left the yard in a hurry.

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The heroics happened in front of a crowd of 9,197 (the largest of the season to that point) and was Fresno’s third walk-off of the season and first via the long ball.

Power and speed

Trevor Story geared up for the Home Run Derby by blasting his 11th homer of the season in Colorado’s 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday. Story now has six home runs over his last 12 games and is one of just five National League players to have posted double digits in home runs and stolen bases (he has 15 of those). The other NL players in the club are Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Trea Turner.

Sunday’s first-inning homer followed a three-run, seventh-inning blast on Saturday night, meaning Story had left the yard in consecutive at-bats. That marked the first time he had homered in back-to-back at-bats since July 26, 2020, at Texas. It was also his first time with home runs in consecutive contests since May 1-2 of this season at Arizona.