Rock Solid Recap: Nothing beats fun at the old ballyard

And finally the Colorado Rockies and their fans got to have a little fun at the expense of the Kansas City Royals.

The Rockies haven't been involved in too many laughers this season. That goes both ways. Just about every day we're sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for that one little thing to go wrong, but praying the Rockies can either overcome it or flat out avoid it. I prefer night's like last night, where the game is essentially over from pitch one to pitch done.

Rockies 9, Royals 0 (boxscore)

Juan Nicasio: The main reason it was over early was this kid. Now, it would be easy to joke that he continued his dominance of the Texas League with this win over Kansas City, but I honestly don't care who he owned. It was all about the confidence and command he had over his entire arsenal. It was damned impressive.

Watch Nicasio deal

I think it was an encouraging glimpse into what Nicasio's future could look like if the secondary stuff becomes more consistent. Either way this was a masterpiece. Just leave it at that and wait patiently to see how he follows it up.

Oh, and it came at a time when the Rockies bullpen needed a night off. They essentially got it with only one-day call up Edgmer Escalona throwing a mop up ninth inning.

Mark Ellis: Flirting with a cycle in your first game? You trying to get us to like you or something? Seriously, great first impression, but I'm going to temper my excitement a little bit. We've seen guys make great first impressions before. Jose Lopez comes to mind. So let's get a better look at the whole picture before professing too much love.

But Ellis does have one thing we can rely on: He's going to play defense. So that gives him a steady foundation. If he has a chip on his shoulder and that actually means something, well, then the Rockies will benefit from that as well. Looking forward to seeing what he has in store for day two.

Watch Ellis go yard 

A lot of other Rockies had good nights at the dish:

• Todd Helton (four hits)
• Troy Tulowitzki (2-run HR)
• Ty Wigginton (two hits, RBI)
• Carlos Gonzalez (hit, two walks, three runs)

But I want to single out Charlie Blackmon for hitting career home run No. 1 on his 25th birthday.

Watch Blackmon's first blast

Gone!

How cool is that?

And he got to keep the baseball. Easily my favorite moment in a game filled with very positive ones.

Just awesome. Hopefully it's the start of a little power surge for Charlie. We also saw Ryan Spilborghs make solid contact three times in this game. If one of these two guys can catch fire heading into the all-star break, that would be really great news for the offense.

Overall: Not going to go over the top in praise for one game. It was just that, one game. I applaud them for taking care of business. Now they have more business to tend to later tonight. Let's get that done too.

Final note: June player rankings might be up after Sunday's game or possibly on Monday. Going to be a crazy weekend so we'll see if I can fit it in.