MIAMI — The woeful Colorado Rockies have ended their ignominious, record-setting MLB streak of 22 consecutive series losses, which dated to last season.
A nervy 3-2 victory at Miami on Tuesday night, highlighted by Hunter Goodman's third home run in two games, gave Colorado two straight victories over the Marlins to ensure the Rockies would leave town with their first series victory since taking two of three games from Arizona in Denver in mid-September.
"That was big-time for the boys, to get that first series win," Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. "Who would've known it wouldn't come until June. But the time is now. I'm happy for them."
Colorado, a major league-worst 11-50, won consecutive games for just the second time this year after beating Atlanta on April 30 and San Francisco the next day. They go for a series sweep against the Marlins on Wednesday.
Goodman called the Rockies' recent form "more encouraging than discouraging."
"We had some rough games in the first part of the year, and being able to just be in ballgames and have a chance to win is always better than just not being in it," he said.
Goodman's teammates seemed unsurprised by his pivotal role in securing the Rockies' first series win of the season.
"He's just raking, and when he's hot, he's one of the best hitters in the game," centerfielder Brenton Doyle told Rockies.tv. "I hope he keeps it up. He's one of my good buddies and that was awesome."
Rockies reliever Seth Halvorsen earned his third save, but only after Heriberto Hernández drove his 1-1 pitch about 400 feet to left center, where Doyle made a game-ending, running catch at the wall.
"I'm not going to lie; off the bat, I thought that was a homer," Schaeffer said. "But it wasn't, so it's all good. It's the best having (Doyle) in center field."
Excluding one-game series, the Rockies are the fourth team since MLB expansion in 1961 to go 18 series before recording their first series win in a season. The 1987 Padres, 1969 Montreal Expos and 1962 Washington Senators all won their first series of those seasons in their 19th series.
Before the Rockies arrived in Miami, they'd gone 3-28 on the road — the worst road mark at that point of season in more than a century — and had not won back-to-back road games since last Sept. 5-6.
"It's nice to get a couple wins. It's good to get that first series win," Schaeffer said. "Now we just move forward."
