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Rockies’ Jake Cave supplies the fireworks in 4-3 win over Brewers

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Rockies’ Jake Cave supplies the fireworks in 4-3 win over Brewers


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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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, CO

Denver Barkey scores first career goal as Flyers take down Oilers

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Denver Barkey scores first career goal as Flyers take down Oilers


January 3 – Denver Barkey’s first NHL tally highlighted a three-goal first period for the Philadelphia Flyers, who beat the host Edmonton Oilers 5-2 on Saturday.

Travis Sanheim and Bobby Brink also scored in the first, while Nick Seeler and Owen Tippett each posted a goal with an assist and Sean Couturier added two helpers for the Flyers, who finished a 3-2-0 road trip. Dan Vladar made 22 saves for Philadelphia, which allowed 13 Edmonton shots on goal in the first period, but just 11 the rest of the way.

Connor McDavid extended his point streak to 15 games with his 25th goal of the season and Evan Bouchard also scored for the Oilers, who have dropped two straight and three of four.

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Philadelphia made its mark early in the first period. Tippett passed the puck into the slot for a streaking Barkey, who beat Oilers’ Calvin Pickard (24 saves) for his milestone goal just 7:16 into the contest.

Barkey’s marker essentially set the tempo, as the visitors made it 2-0 with 9:29 left in the first when Sanheim beat Pickard from the right circle.

Philadelphia then extended its lead a little over four minutes later when an Edmonton turnover led to the puck deflecting into the net off the heel of Brink’s skate off a shot from Cam York.

Vladar, meanwhile, was solid by stopping 12 shots in the first period. However, he couldn’t prevent McDavid from scoring on a breakaway, which came off a Sanheim turnover in the neutral zone, with 3:52 remaining before the first intermission.

The Oilers made it 3-2 on the power play with 10:06 remaining in the second period. With an assist from McDavid, Bouchard unloaded a successful slap shot from the left point to give Edmonton at least one goal on the man advantage in nine of the last 10 games.

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Philadelphia found some breathing room with 10:51 remaining in regulation off Seeler’s wrister for his first goal of the season. Tippett added an empty-netter as the Flyers scored at least five goals for the third time in their last six.

McDavid, meanwhile, has 14 goals with 22 assists in the last 15 games.

–Field Level Media

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Denver, CO

A franchise quarterback is vital to winning division titles

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A franchise quarterback is vital to winning division titles


You might respond to this headline with ‘and water is wet’ and I wouldn’t blame you, but I was looking over the Denver Broncos history and how often they have won a division title. In their 65 years, the Broncos have brought home 16 AFC West division titles. That’s not very many, but given their first winning season was almost 20 years into it then it doesn’t look so bad.

The other thing I noticed is that only those teams who had a franchise quarterback type player under center did they repeat often as division winners. 11 of those 16 titles were won while John Elway or Peyton Manning were quarterbacking the franchise. Craig Morton won two backed by the vaunted Orange Crush defense of the 70s, but the rest were one-off division winners like Jake Plummer and Tim Tebow. Now that latter list includes Bo Nix.

The craziest stat that I found researching this topic was that all but one Broncos team that did not win the division were one-and-done in the playoffs. The lone team that wasn’t was that 1997 Super Bowl winning squad. Every single other team that finished second or third in the division and made the playoffs did not win a game once they got there. That doesn’t have much to do with the franchise quarterback topic here, but I found this little tidbit too interesting to not share.

As for the division winners, there were plenty of one-and-done seasons there too, but all of their playoff wins sans-1997 are also there.

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The question I meant to get to sooner before going off on that side quest regarding the playoff outcomes was whether or not Bo Nix joins Elway and Manning or ends up with the Plummer and Morton’s of history of pretty good but not all-time great. A few playoff wins over the next month would certainly move the needle some before adding more division titles down the road.



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Denver police report increase in street racing arrests and citations in 2025

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Denver police report increase in street racing arrests and citations in 2025


DENVER — Street racing continues to pose threats to Colorado drivers, so Denver7 looked into the trends we saw throughout 2025.

Denver Police report 80 citations and arrests as of December 17 for 2025. That’s 20 more than last year, according to Doug Schepman, director of communications for the Denver Police Department (DPD).

There is one strip of road in Denver we asked Schepman about specifically, after hearing from business owners that it’s particularly troublesome.

We’re talking about the 2000 block of S. Santa Fe Drive in Denver.

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Michael Gray, owner of Discount Fishing Tackle, said it’s a weekly occurrence to watch or hear cars and motorcycles zip past.

“Recently, we’ve seen the kids on the motorcycles coming by with the front wheel in the air, going just as dangerous as can be, and especially dangerous because so many other people are going so fast on this road,” Gray said.

He said he’s noticed that as more turnoffs are removed and the spacing between traffic lights gets longer, more drivers tend to use it as their personal raceway.

“It doesn’t affect us really too much, but you don’t like to have something as dangerous as that going on all the time,” he said.

Schepman said patrol districts are aware that street racing occurs along this stretch of South Santa Fe Drive, and that officers are directed to patrol the area during periods when reports are more prevalent.

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He adds that the community plays a critical part in helping investigators curb this problem.

The Colorado State Patrol said it has received more than 1,700 reports from the community this year.

You can continue to report street racing here.

Denver7

Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Allie Jennerjahn

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Denver7’s Allie Jennerjahn covers stories that have an impact in all of Colorado’s communities, but specializes in reporting on crime, corruption and ways to protect your family. If you’d like to get in touch with Allie, fill out the form below to send her an email.





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