Daza blasts first MLB homer
The first home run of Yonathan Daza’s big-league career took flight through the cold and snow Wednesday afternoon in the Rockies’ 6-3 win over Houston.
For the outfielder from Maracy, Venezuela, Coors Field became a winter wonderland. It conjured up visions of Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera, his boyhood hero, who hit the very first home run of the 2021 season at Comerica Park on April 1. Cabrera, a likely future Hall of Famer, could join baseball’s prestigious 500-homer club this season.
Daza, 27, is just getting started. “It’s all incredible,” said Daza, who played a game in the snow for the first time. “I just remember one of my favorite players, Miguel Cabrera, and I kind of had that feeling today going into the game.”
Daza received his milestone baseball and said he will give it to his mom, Maritza.
He also received accolades from manager Bud Black, who continues to start Daza in center field. And how could he not? Daza has forced Black’s hand. After his 2-for-4 performance Wednesday, Daza is batting .357 in 14 games, including six starts.
“I’ve been impressed with — we saw it a little bit in spring training — the quality of the at-bat, not expanding the zone, being a little bit more selective,” Black said. “What we saw from his initial atbats in the big leagues was a little bit of overaggressiveness, a little bit of anxiousness, maybe not the calm, poised at-bat.”
But Daza, who is a plus defender in the outfield, is beginning to display that poise now and is making a bid to become Colorado’s starting center fielder.
Bullpen moves. Black continues searching for relievers who can hold leads in check. Right-hander Robert Stephenson is the latest to get a test run. So far, so good.
Stephenson, the centerpiece of the trade that sent right-hander Jeff Hoffman to Cincinnati, pitched a scoreless seventh in Wednesday’s 6-3 victory over the Astros. He has a 3.24 ERA in nine appearances (8 L innings). He also threw a clean, two-strikeout inning Sunday in Colorado’s 2-1 loss to the New York Mets.
Black said Stephenson has shown better fastball command than he did during spring training.
“The thing that has stood out that was different from spring training is that the fastball is in the strike zone and the slider also is in the strike zone,” the manager said.
“The slider has always been pretty consistent from March spring games until now, and I think there’s some growing confidence.”
Shush, now. In the Rockies’ 6-2 victory over the Astros on Tuesday night, catcher Dom Nuñez blasted a seventh-inning home run off the Astros’ Ryne Stanek. As he rounded third base, Nuñez put his finger to his lips and gave the “shush” sign. He was not sending a signal to the Astros’ bench. Rather, he was sending a message to the vocal Astros fans behind the dugout.
“Just some fans were giving me a lot of grief last night, I have no idea why,” Nuñez said Wednesday morning. “It was really during that at-bat. I clipped it. I knew I got it. It was just a silent gesture to let them know I could hear them talking.”