Jake Cave has been a sparkplug for the Rockies this season, running down flyballs in the outfield, taking extra bases and pumping up his teammates.

Thursday night, Cave provided the fireworks.

His solo homer to dead center in the sixth inning lifted Colorado to a 4-3 win over Milwaukee in front of an Independence Day crowd of 48,705 at Coors Field.

Cave’s first homer of the season came on a 1-0 fastball by Brewers starter Tobias Myers. The dinger, which traveled 430 feet, was Cave’s first since Aug. 20 of last season when he played for the Phillies. It snapped a streak of 208 at-bats without a homer.

When he got to the dugout, Cave was treated with the silent treatment, a tradition usually reserved for rookies who hit their first career homer. Third baseman Ryan McMahon was the instigator.

“That’s awesome,” said Cave, who entered Thursday with the fourth-longest active homerless at-bat streak in the majors. “I’ve done it to guys before, too. I was so pumped up I didn’t know what was happening at first as I came down the stairs.

“Then I realized they were doing the silent treatment. It was cool. It was fun.”

Manager Bud Black was thrilled for Cave, someone who plays with the kind of passion that Black loves.

“He’s playing a great all-around game over the last couple of months,” Black said. “He knows how to play. He brings great energy every day, in the dugout and in the clubhouse. He’s gritty.

“He’s capable of (hitting a homer) and I’ll go out there and say that there’s some more coming.”

Colorado right-hander Cal Quantrill battled, as he always does. He gave himself a C grade for his outing.

“I see my job as giving my team a chance to win every fifth day,” Quantrill said. “Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s hard. Tonight it was exceptionally hard. I really didn’t have very good stuff. But the way I look at it, if it’s a ‘C’ game and the team gets a win, it’s hard not to be excited about that.”

Quantrill departed after five innings with Colorado holding a 3-2 lead. He gave up five hits, struck out two and walked four. The four free passes stung him, and he failed to get a quality start for just the third time in his last 12 starts.

But the bottom line was that the right-hander set the Rockies up for victory, and he has a 3.03 ERA in those 12 starts, dating back to May 3.

The Rockies held their breath in the third inning when Quantrill walked gingerly off the field. He fielded William Contreras’ swinging bunt in front of the mound and fired a strike to first to nip Contreras for the inning’s final out. But Quantrill fell during his throw and came up limping slightly. He said he “slightly tweaked” his hamstring.

Quantrill was not sharp in the fourth when he walked three batters to load the bases and paid the price when Andruw Monasterio blooped a two-run single to right, cutting Colorado’s lead to 3-2. Quantrill said the hamstring was not to blame for the three walks.

“I was just trying to be too fine,” he said.

The Brewers tied the game in the sixth off reliever Anthony Molina. Jackson Chourio scorched an RBI double to center, scoring Rhys Hoskins, who drew a one-out walk.

Timely hits gave the Rockies an early 3-0 lead. Charlie Blackmon led off the first with a single, advanced to second on Ezequiel Tovar’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Ryan McMahon’s opposite-field double to left.

In the second, Blackmon’s two-run, pop-up, hustle double to shallow right scored Michael Toglia and Sam Hilliard.

Colorado’s much-maligned, rickety bullpen finally delivered in the clutch. Right-hander Tyler Kinley pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings and lefty Jalen Beeks pitched  1 1/3 scoreless innings for his seventh save.

Beek’s biggest out was striking out pinch-hitter Garrett Mitchell looking at a 96 mph fastball for the final out of the eighth inning with two men on base. Beeks set the Brewers down in order in the ninth, getting All-Star Christian Yelich to chop out to first for the final out.

Friday’s pitching matchup

Royals LHP Cole Ragans (5-6, 3.33 ERA) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (0-3, 7.94)

6:10 p.m. Friday, 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

Freeland has pitched brilliantly in his two starts since coming off the injured list, posting a 1.42 ERA despite not getting a victory. In his last start against the White Sox, the lefty notched his 751st career strikeout, surpassing Pedro Astacio for the fifth most in franchise history. He also tied Jeff Francis for the third-most starts in franchise history (185). In seven career starts vs. Milwaukee, Freeland is 4-2 with a 2.36 ERA.

Ragan is coming off a rough outing vs. Cleveland in which he was charged with the loss when he allowed five runs on six hits over 4 2/3 innings. Entering Thursday’s play, he ranked second in the American League with 126 strikeouts. His 215 strikeouts are the most by a Royals pitcher through 30 starts to begin a stint with the franchise. Ragans has made one career appearance against the Rockies, tossing two scoreless innings in relief on May 20, 2023, at Globe Life Field as a member of the Rangers’ bullpen.

Pitching probables

Saturday: Royals RHP Seth Lugo (11-2, 2.17) at Rockies LHP Austin Gomber (1-5, 4.72), 7:10 p.m.

Sunday: Royals RHP Brady Singer (4-5, 3.05) at Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (1-7, 5.60), 1:10 p.m.

— Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post

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Denver Broncos Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Surtain II has admitted this offseason that he plans on making improvements over last year’s performance. There’s little doubt that Surtain appears to be the Broncos’ most talented player, so expecting the 24-year-old to keep getting better is a solid bet.

NFL.com’s Eric Edholm went around the league to pick each team’s 2024 MVP, and Surtain was unsurprisingly pegged to be a new and improved version of himself in 2024.

“Though I admit that this race is wide open, I arrived at Surtain pretty quickly. It was never going to be one of the quarterbacks for me, not until I’ve seen more from Jarrett Stidham or Bo Nix. Receiver Courtland Sutton could be that guy, especially with Jerry Jeudy having been traded to Cleveland, but Sutton apparently remains at loggerheads with the team over his contract, and his production will be dependent on how the QBs perform.

“Surtain isn’t even coming off his best year, to be honest; in 2023, he committed more penalties (six) than he had in his first two seasons combined. He also allowed more receptions than he did in either Years 1 or 2, according to Pro Football Focus. But I believe he has the best chance to be Denver’s MVP in 2024, given the makeup of the offense and the fact that he’s the Broncos’ top defender right now, at least on paper. Surtain was a more reliable tackler last season than he’d been previously, and he’s tasked with containing WR1s on a weekly basis. If he can make a few more plays on the ball, earning this honor wouldn’t be a stretch at all,” Edholm wrote.

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Surtain has never been short on confidence, but the 70-point humiliation the Broncos defense took squarely on the chin in Miami last season was hard to look past. Year 1 under defensive coordinator Vance Joseph in Denver had its ups and downs, which fully tested Surtain’s mental fortitude.

Entering Year 2 in the system, Surtain has the familiarity with Joseph’s defense and what he’s trying to achieve. Surtain has sounded a lot more enthusiastic about the simplistic and attacking defensive scheme the Broncos are going to run under Joseph moving forward.

“It’s great. Vance, obviously, he’s set a great example for us, just believing in us with his playcalls, but also he’s simplifying it even more, so we can play faster, feel comfortable, and that’s the main thing you want in a defense,” Surtain said via Andrew Mason back in June. “We’ve got the utmost belief in Vance, and I know Vance has the utmost belief in us. It goes hand in hand.”

Truth be told, head coach Sean Payton would probably much prefer that Denver’s MVP ultimately ends up being first-round quarterback Bo Nix, rather than anyone on defense. Making any sweeping predictions that Nix will even be the full-time starter would be premature. Training camp will answer a great deal of questions on that front.

It’s generally accepted that Sutton will be the Broncos’ No.1 receiver. NFL.com has a theory that Sutton’s stubborn contractual issues might take him off his stride, but that’s probably being overplayed.

Sutton’s diligent approach to his craft won’t stop him from preparing to the best of his abilities, and that will include a private get-together between Denver’s quarterbacks and receivers for a throwing session or two prior to training camp. The challenge any receiver faces of bonding with a rookie quarterback during the season or with a career backup like Stidham could curtail Sutton’s chances of becoming the Broncos’ MVP.

The decreasing likelihood that Sutton, Nix, or another offensive player will become a dominant force, makes Surtain the heavy favorite for team MVP honors. Furthermore, Surtain will do it the hard way, simply on account of drawing the toughest one-on-one assignments on a weekly basis.

Factor in a looming lucrative contract extension for Surtain, and the Broncos and their star defender have every reason to be massively motivated for this season. All told, that makes Surtain the horse to back in the Broncos’ MVP battle — until someone else throws a wrench in the works.

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The Denver metro will see sunny skies for the Fourth of July with a slight chance of evening thunderstorms, according to the National Weather Service at Boulder.

Denver residents can expect temperatures to top out around 83 degrees Thursday with sunshine through 5 p.m.

Between 5 and 10 p.m., there’s an about 10% chance of rain and thunderstorms in Denver, according to the weather service.

That chance rises to about 20% in the cities south of Denver, including Centennial, Highlands Ranch and Parker.