Ryan McMahon’s splashdown homer, Cal Quantrill’s gem lift Rockies over Pirates

The Rockies, oh so desperately needed someone to make a big splash.

Two players delivered Friday night — one of them literally — in the Rockies’ 3-2 win over the Pirates at PNC Park.

Ryan McMahon led off the Rockies’ three-run sixth inning with a 445-foot homer that splashed down in the Allegheny River. That inning gave right-hander Cal Qauntrill all the support he needed to notch his first victory in a Rockies uniform.

The Rockies (8-24) snapped a five-game losing streak and improved to 3-14 on the road. But the win didn’t come without white knuckles. Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz crushed a two-run homer off lefty reliever Jalen Beeks’  0-2 changeup in the ninth, but Beeks struck out Connor Joe and Jared Triolo to preserve the win and get the save.

The Rockies also, finally, put an ugly record to bed. They had trailed in each of their first 31 games to begin the season, bypassing the 1910 St. Louis Browns (28 games) for the longest such streak to begin a season in the Modern Era.

“Yeah, it was like since the 1916 ‘somebodies’ … It’s good to not be a (footnote) for sure,”  manager Bud Black joked with reporters after the game. “But it does feel good. I don’t think of those things during a game, but thanks for reminding me. I’ll sleep maybe a little better tonight because I haven’t been sleeping well at all. It’s been awful.”

Quantrill pitched 7 2/3 innings, giving up just three hits, all singles. His split-finger change-up confounded the Pirates, and he struck out nine and walked none. Seven of his strikeouts came via his split-finger pitch. He also got seven groundball outs; of his 99 pitches, 66 were thrown for strikes.

The right-hander became just the third Rockies pitcher to pitch at least seven scoreless innings with nine or more strikeouts and no walks. The other two are German Marquez, with nine innings and nine strikeouts on April 14, 2019, at San Francisco, and Jon Gray, with nine innings and 16 strikeouts on Aug. 17, 2016, vs. the Padres at Coors Field.

Quantrill looked like he might have a chance for his first complete game, but when he plunked Joey Bart with two outs in the eighth, Black replaced him with reliever Jake Bird.

“Cal’s fastball command was the ticket,” Black said. “That was old-school. It was down-and-away and enough inside command as well.”

McMahon’s enormous homer jump-started Colorado’s stalled offense. He punished veteran left-hander Martin Perez’s 1-1 changeup for his team-leading fifth home run. McMahon joined Hall of Famer Todd Helton as the only Rockies player to reach the Allegheny River.

Helton did it on May 4, 2001, the first year PNC opened. Helton was the second player to accomplish the feat. Houston’s Lance Berkman was the first. McMahon became the 49th player to hit a homer into the Allegheny River. It’s been done 71 times.

“That was right in my loop,” McMahon told Rockies.TV.

Black knew McMahon’s homer was special the moment the ball left the bat.

“As soon as he hit it, I knew it was out of the stadium,” Black said. “Our bench erupted. When you see something majestic like that, it’s pretty cool. When you have a beautiful swing like McMahon’s, and there’s contact and it goes like that, it’s magical. He crushed it.”

Designated hitter Elias Diaz followed up McMahon’s homer with a double. Elehuris Montero drove in Diaz with a single to left and took second on a throw to the plate. Brendan Rodgers battled reliever Hunter Stratton through a 12-pitch at-bat to score Montero with an RBI single to right.