Blackmon sets tone as he tries to regain stamina after COVID

Friday night’s intrasquad scrimmage saw the Rockies’ Purple and Pinstripe squads combine for three runs in about five innings before the teams began situational work. On Saturday, three runs were on the board by the end of the first inning.

Charlie Blackmon set the tone early. On the second offering he saw from Pinstripe starter Ryan Castellani, the four-time all-star launched a fastball deep over the

in right center for his second home run in as many days since his return from COVID-19 quarantine.

“Charlie just needs to get some stamina,” Rockies’ manager Bud Black said. “The main thing with Chuck is getting back on his feet, getting his baseball legs under him, getting that game-condition stamina to a point where he feels confident mentally and physically to play a big league game.”

Four batters later, Chris Owings knocked Castellani’s 2-0 fastball off the top of the right field wall to bring Daniel Murphy all the way around from first. The Pinstripes added one in the bottom of the frame on a Ryan Mcmahon RBI groundout.

But the Purple squad continued to shell Castellani, scoring five times in the top of the second. Raimel Tapia singled with the bases loaded, and a Murphy double added another pair. Owings followed him by doubling again, his fourth extra base hit in two days, to finish the scoring and Castellani’s day.

Blackmon added another RBI off Daniel Bard later in the game. Sevwall en of the nine players in the Purple lineup reached base in the first three innings.

Technically, David Dahl returned yesterday.

After missing part of summer camp because of core soreness, Dahl walked up to the plate for the first time in months on Friday and promptly struck out. The rest of his Friday wasn’t much better though he did hit a sacrifice fly during the team’s late inning simulation.

“Hopefully things can stabilize as he gets older,” Black said about

Dahl’s injuries. “As he gets older and continues to mature physically, and gets — what we refer to in the scouting world as manstrength — hopefully these little nagging injuries can go away.”

But on Saturday, Dahl looked more like himself. Leading off the bottom of the first for the Purple squad, he doubled into the left field corner before scoring on Mcmahon’s groundout to second. One frame later, and ahl knocked a clean single up the middle against Purple squad starter German Marquez to bring home a run.