Story Belongs in Rockies Top 10 HR Efforts -- But Where?

Trevor Story earned his own niche in Rockies history in the 5-3 victory against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night.

Story hit not one, but three home runs, each with a very distinctive aura, and each off Giants starting pitcher Andrew Suarez.

With two out in the first inning, after Nolan Arenado’s sacrifice fly tied the score at 1-1, Story turned a 2-2 pitch into a go-ahead home run, swinging so hard that he landed on his posterior, and watched the ball sail out from ground level.

And it got better.

With an Aramis Garcia home run in the top of the fourth giving the Giants another one-run lead, 3-2, Story stepped to the plate with one out in the bottom of the fourth, and on a 1-1 count not only delivered a game-tying home run, but drove the ball 505 fit, the longest home run hit in Major League Baseball during the statcast era.

And he wasn’t done.

In the sixth inning, the scored still tied at 3-3 and two out, Story turned on the first pitch Suarez threw him in that at-bat and delivered what turned into the game-winning home run, giving the Rockies a 4-3 lead that grew to 5-3 by night’s end.

Talk about memories.

Take your pick.

Somewhere in the Rockies Top 10 Home Run list Story's effort belongs.

There question is where.

My Top 9, waiting for you to decide where Story's effort fits into the list:

1.       It was the bottom of the ninth inning of the second game of a Sept. 18, 2007 doubleheaders, and the Dodgers, nursing an 8-7 lead, turned to Takashi Saito, who led the majors in save and had held the Rockies to a combined 0-for-14 with two walks in earned five earlier saves against him.

Saito had retired the first two batters this time, but then . . . Matt Holliday delivered a two-out single, and Todd Helton, hitless in four at-bats that night, drove a 1-2 pitch from Saito over the right-field fence.

More important, as Helton rounded first, the stoic elder statesman of the Rockies, thrust his arm in the air, a signal to his young teammates that it was time to get excited. And they responded. That turned out to be the third game in a 21-of-22 season-ending stretch that saw the Rockies climb from fourth place in the NL West to the NL wild-card, finishing a half-game out of first.

They went on to sweep the Phillies in the NL Division Series and Diamondbacks in the NLCS before being swept themselves by the Red Sox in what is the only World Series appearance in franchise history.

2.  Having made their debut as a Major League team by being swept in a season opening two-game series against the Mets in Shea Stadium in 1993 – their only run a Dante Bichette home run – the Rockies found themselves playing in front of a major league record crowd of 80,277 at Mile High Stadium, and they did not disappoint those fans.

Leading off the bottom of the first, Eric Young, worked the count to 3-2, and then unloaded a home run in the first at-bat every by a Rockies player in Colorado. The crowd went nuts, and the players got pumped, turning their home debut into an 11-4 victory that remains a critical part of Rockies lore.

3. Two seasons after Helton, on Aug. 24, 2009, in what was another Rockies dash to a wild-card berth, it was Ryan Spilborghs who found himself on center stage in a game against the Giants that rolled through 13 innings as a 1-1 tie – the Giants scoring on a first-inning sacrifice fly by Pablo Sandoval, and the Rockies in the fifth on a bases-loaded walk to Todd Helton.

In the top of the 14th, however, the Giants scored twice, taking the field in the bottom of that inning three outs from a victory – three outs they didn’t get thanks to Spilborghs getting his day in the sun.

The bottom of the 14th began with a walk to a sore-kneed Dexter Fowler, and a Clint Barmes pop up. Chris Iannetta, in a pinch-hit role for Carlos Gonzalez who couldn’t grip a bat because he had sliced his finger with a knife during dinner two days later but had come in the game as a pinch-runner earlier, would single. After Troy Tulowtizki walked to load the bases. Up stepped pitcher Adam Eaton, ordered not to swing at a pitch so he would not hit into a game-ending double play.

He didn’t, but he did wind up with a five-pitch walk, forcing home a run to cut the score to 3-2 Up stepped Spilborghs, who had grounded into an inning-ending double play to end the 10th. This time, though, he greeted reliever Merkin Valdez with a game-ending grand slam in what was a dash off, Spilborghs running full speed around the bases and jumping into a pile of teammates, waiting on him at home plate.

4. When history calls it’s hard to ignore, and on Father’s Day last year – June 19 – Nolan Arenado answered in milestone-setting style. Having singled, doubled and tripled in his first three at-bats, Arenado came to the plate with the Giants leading 5-4, two men on base, and closer Mark Melancon on the mound. Melancon made a first-pitch mistake – a fastball in and off the plate, Arenado’s strength.

Arenado made him pay, drilling the ball into the left field stands, becoming the first player in history to hit a cycle-completing home run to lift his team from a deficit to a walk-off victory.

5.  Hey, nothing like an opening day at home to stir up memories, like the first game ever at Coors Field. Delayed nearly four weeks by the late settlement of a players’ strike that had wiped out the 1994 post-season, the Rockies finally got to show of their new digs on April 29, 1995. Having rallied from deficits of 6-5 in the ninth and 7-6 in the 13th, the Rockies came to the plate down 8-7 in the bottom of the 14th.

With one out, and two on, thanks to a Mike Kingery leadoff single, and a Tim Bogar error that allowed Joe Girardi to reach, Dante Bichette turned a 2-1 pitch from Mike Remlinger into a bullet that landed on the concourse behind the seats in left field, the opening act in a season that ended with the Rockies claiming the wild-card, and advancing to the post-season faster than any team in history.

6.  The Rockies had already taken a 3-0 lead against Marlins right-hander Kevin Brown at Pro Player Stadium on the afternoon of May 31, 1997 when, with two out in the top of the fourth, Brown gave up back-to-back singles to Eric Young and Quinten McCracken, who scrambled to second when Young drew the outfielders throw in advancing to third base.

After Brown issued an intentional walk to Larry Walker, Andres Galarraga worked the count to 2-2 and then unloaded a mammoth home run to right field that landed on the top 20 rows up from the walkway. Initially announced at 573 feet, the Marlins officials, after hearing mention of the fact it would surpass a blast by Mickey Mantle 40 years earlier in Washington, D.C., as the longest home run in history, quickly reduced the distance to 529 feet, and it has since been changed to 509 feet.

Nobody, however, could take away from majestic flight of the arching ball and the way it bounced off the tarp that covered the empty seats in the upper deck of the stadium. Ken Boyer, with the Cardinals in 1961, Cesar Tovar with the Twins in 1982, Dwight Evans with the Red Sox in 1984, and Arenado teammate, Carlos Gonzalez in 2010, all completed cycles with walk-off home runs, but in all four of those incidents the score was tied.

7.  Vinny Castilla fits not for one dramatic home run, but two, in the Astrodome, in different games, but both were game-winners off former Astros closer Billy Wagner.

Pitchers can be stubborn, and Castilla could hit a fastball, the pitch that Wagner prided himself on throwing.

So, it was, on April 28, 1997, in the massive Astrodome that Castilla came to the plate in the top of the 10th inning with the scored tied 6-6 and two out. Wagner throws Castilla a first pitch curveball that Castilla futility swings at for strike one. Then Wagner comes back with a fastball and Castilla returns the favor, driving the ball over the left-center field fence for what became the game-winning hit.

Nearly two months later, on Aug. 23, 1997, the Rockies are back in the Astrodome in a 3-3 game in the top of the ninth with Wagner on the mound, and Castilla at the plate. Wagner, using his curveball, gets ahead in the count 1-2.

Then comes a fastball. There goes a three-run Castilla home run that lifted the Rockies to another win.

“You can’t sneak the cheese past the rat,” Castilla explained afterward.

8.  There’s something about Opening Day in Denver, and in 2005 rookie shortstop Clint Barmes added another chapter. The Padres went into the bottom of the ninth with a 10-8 lead and eventual Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman on the mound. It’s all they could have asked for.  They, however, didn’t have the answer for what the Rockies had to offer. With two out, Cory Sullivan doubled home one run, and Aaron Miles singled home another. Then, with the scored tied 10-10 and two out, Barmes came to the plate, and the first pitch Hoffman threw him, Barmes delivered the walk-off home run.

9. No list is complete without the Larry Walker effort in his return to Montreal on April 5, 1997. Facing the team he came to the big leagues with and then left as a free agent to sign with the Rockies in the spring of 1995 because the Expos didn’t offer him a contract, Walker was the constant target at Olympic Stadium of boo birds, who felt he jilted them.

Walker homered off Anthony Telford in the fourth, Omar Daal in the sixth, and Dave Veres in the seventh. Then, in the bottom of the eighth, knowing he would be the third hitter in the ninth and with a chance to make a loud statement to the booing fans, Walker told manager Don Baylor he should give John Vander Waal a chance to swing the bat and get an inning in right field.

“But you have a chance to four home runs,” said Baylor.

“Vandy needs an at-bats, we may need him for a clutch pinch-hit,” said Walker.