The Rockies threw a boffo welcome-back for Ryan Feltner on Saturday night, and the right-hander was the biggest party animal of all.

Coming back from an elbow injury and making his first big-league start since April 23, the right-hander celebrated by pitching six crisp, efficient innings in Colorado’s 8-3 win over the Giants at Coors Field. Feltner allowed no runs, just four hits, struck out two, and walked none.  He needed just 63 pitches, throwing 41 for strikes.

“I felt great and felt like all of my pitches were working,” said Feltner, who became the first Rockies starter to pitch six scoreless innings with no walks since lefty Kyle Freeland on Sept. 5 of last season vs. San Diego.

“I was really happy about the efficiency part of the game,” Feltner added. “It’s always important to go deep into a game here (at Coors).”

Manager Warren Schaeffer said there was never any thought about pushing Feltner past six innings after Feltner made just two minor league rehab starts.

“There was no reason to push him into the seventh; he did his job,”  Schaeffer said. “His fastball command was exceptional, his slider was good and he got double-play balls early when he needed to. I just thought he controlled his game very well.

“He controlled his emotions, he was in attack mode, and like we talked about before the game, when he does that, he’s pretty dang good.”

The Rockies, who beat San Francisco 8-6 on Friday night on a walk-off homer by Ezequiel Tovar, clinched their first series win since sweeping the Mets from April 24-29 in New York.

Feltner got plenty of support.

The Rockies have had a nasty habit this season of scoring early only to see the offense go into hibernation. That wasn’t the case on Saturday. The Rockies kept piling on and taking away any chance for late-game drama in LoDo.

“When a guy goes out there and grinds away, like Feltner did, you want to reward them with run,” said center fielder Jake McCarthy, who had a big night from the leadoff spot, going 3 for 4 with a walk and driving in four runs.

McCarthy’s 427-foot two-run homer in the fourth off Giants right-hander Adrian Houser gave Colorado a 4-0 lead. McCarthy added an RBI single in the fifth and another in Colorado’s three-run seventh. He also recorded his club-leading 10th stolen base and reached base four times for the eighth time in his career.

“I haven’t been patient the last week, I had a lot of pretty bad at-bats” he said. “But I think it’s just about getting good pitches to hit.  … Getting into good counts, seeing pitches and taking pitcher’s pitches you can make it easier on yourself. I think I did a good job of that tonight.”

DENVER — Saturday will bring strong-to-severe thunderstorms across far northeastern Colorado this afternoon and evening.

The storms could produce large hail, strong winds, and lightning.

For the Denver metro and communities along the I-25 corridor, storm coverage is much lower.

Storm threat for northeastern Colorado Saturday; sunny and warmer Sunday

While a few showers and storms may still develop, many locations could remain dry for most of the day.

Saturday’s afternoon high will reach the upper 70s and lower 80s across the plains, with cooler conditions in the high country.

Sunday will be calmer with the storm system moving away from our region.

Sunday will bring drier conditions statewide and plenty of sunshine with highs in the 80s.
There is a chance of isolated showers in the mountains.

Warmer temperatures are expected through the next week, with a chance of thunderstorms returning on Monday.

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