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.

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.