Char­lie Black­mon loves base­ball like an 8‑year-old kid, works out with the ener­gy of a teenag­er and views the game through the eyes of a gnarly veteran.

All of those char­ac­ter­is­tics were on dis­play Mon­day after­noon at sun-splashed Coors Field.

Black­mon, who turns 38 on July 1, hit a three-run homer and two dou­bles and drove in four runs to lead the Rock­ies to an 8–6 vic­to­ry over the Cleve­land Guardians. As a reminder that he’s still got some­thing left, “Chuck Naz­ty” made a slid­ing, shoe­top catch in foul ter­ri­to­ry in the sixth inning to retire Cleveland’s Kyle Manzardo.

Blackmon’s play­ing time has been reduced this sea­son as the Rock­ies look to build a younger out­field, but like a bushy-beard­ed Boy Scout, he’s always prepared.

“The assign­ment has changed a lit­tle bit, I guess you could say,” Black­mon said. “That doesn’t mean it’s any less impor­tant. It just means I need to not be sur­prised in cer­tain sit­u­a­tions and be ready to go when it’s my turn to play. I also need to try and be a lit­tle bit more con­sis­tent when I do get out there.”

Man­ag­er Bud Black said, “Noth­ing Char­lie does sur­pris­es us. I can’t count how many times I’ve said this. He comes every day, pre­pared. He’s as rou­tine-ori­ent­ed as any­body I’ve ever been around. And he’s all about com­pet­ing and doing his part to help us win the game.”

After win­ning a week­end series against Philadel­phia, own­ers of the best record in the Nation­al League, the Rock­ies cooled off baseball’s hottest team.

The Guardians, who entered Mon­day with the best record in the AL, came to Den­ver rid­ing a nine-game win­ning streak. It was their longest streak since Aug. 24-Sept. 14, 2017, when the club set the Amer­i­can League record with 22 straight victories.

While Black­mon took cen­ter stage, the game’s co-star was lefty reliev­er Josh Rogers, who was called up from Triple‑A Albu­querque before the game and pro­vid­ed the Rock­ies with five sol­id innings. He was charged with two runs on four hits.

“We need­ed that,” Black said. “He was the key to the game. Obvi­ous­ly, Char­lie did his part with the big three-run homer to give us a 7–4 lead. Those two guys car­ried us today.”

Rogers picked up his first major league win since May 14, 2022, vs. Hous­ton when he pitched for the Nation­als. He turned in the longest relief appear­ance by a Rock­ies pitch­er since Chi Chi Gon­za­lez tossed five innings on Sept. 21, 2021, at Dodger Stadium.

“I’ve been work­ing real­ly hard the last year and a half down in Albu­querque,” Rogers said. “It’s not an easy place to play, obvi­ous­ly. Nei­ther is it here. But just to be back was humbling.

“I’ve just been try­ing to get bet­ter, every sin­gle day. And I got on a good lit­tle run down in Albu­querque and I feel so for­tu­nate to be back in this clubhouse.”

When left-han­der Austin Gomber was scratched before the game because of arm sore­ness, Col­orado start­ed Antho­ny Moli­na, the Rule‑5 draft acqui­si­tion. But Moli­na was gone quick­ly, giv­ing up three runs on two hits and three walks in 1 2/3 innings. Enter Rogers, who pro­vid­ed some much-need­ed bullpen stability.

Colorado’s break­out inning was the six-run fourth. It sent nine men to the plate and got a two-run sin­gle from Ele­huris Mon­tero, imme­di­ate­ly fol­lowed by Blackmon’s three-run, line-dri­ve homer to right. It was only Blackmon’s sec­ond homer of the sea­son and his first in 114 at-bats, dat­ing back to April 8.

Black­mon added an RBI dou­ble in the sixth, scor­ing Sean Bouchard, who walked and stole second.

Blackmon’s four RBIs are a sea­son-high and his most in a game since dri­ving in four runs on Sept. 2, 2021, vs. Atlanta. It was Blackmon’s 15th career game with at least three extra-base hits, mov­ing him past Nolan Are­na­do for the sec­ond-most in fran­chise his­to­ry behind Hall of Famer Todd Hel­ton, who had 16.

“One thing I know when I go back and watch video, and watch myself play is that that day, that’s the best I was going to be,” Black­mon said. “I was ready to pro­duce on the field when I went out there.

“I think it’s impor­tant for every­body to approach the game in such a way that they can say, ‘ I’m ready to be eval­u­at­ed, this is my prod­uct and I want to do the best that I can.’ ”

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Tuesday’s pitching matchup

Guardians RHP Tris­ton McKen­zie (2–3, 3.44 ERA) at Rock­ies RHP Ryan Felt­ner (1–4, 5.07)

6:40 p.m. Tues­day, Coors Field

TV: Rockies.TV (stream­ing); Comcast/Xfinity (chan­nel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spec­trum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depend­ing on region).

Radio: 850 AM/94.1 FM

The Rock­ies love Feltner’s high-veloc­i­ty fast­ball and his poten­tial, but he remains a work in progress. His last start was a step for­ward. Although the Rock­ies lost at Oak­land when the bullpen implod­ed, Felt­ner pitched six score­less innings, allow­ing four hits and two walks. He struck out six. Felt­ner is win­less in his last sev­en starts. Felt­ner has faced the Guardians once, on April 25 of last sea­son. He pitched a ter­rif­ic game: six score­less innings, five hits, six strike­outs and no walks.

McKen­zie was not sharp in his last start. He gave up three solo homers (five hits over­all) and issued five walks against the Mets. He struck out five. It was the first time in sev­en starts that McKen­zie allowed more than two earned runs. He entered the game with a 2.10 ERA over his pri­or six starts. The right-han­der has faced the Rock­ies just once, but he dom­i­nat­ed them, pick­ing up the win when he allowed one run on sev­en hits across six innings. He fanned six and walked one.

Pitching probables

Wednes­day: Guardians LHP Logan Allen (4–2, 4.91) at Rock­ies LHP Ty Blach (1–2, 4.55), 6:40 p.m.

Thurs­day: Off day

— Patrick Saun­ders, The Den­ver Post

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