San Francisco Giants at Colorado Rockies

DENVER – Rockies third baseman Kyle Karros wore a T-shirt with the sleeves ripped away one morning a couple of weeks ago. He looked as if he was headed to brunch by the beach after a night of dub-stepping to EDM – both welcome diversions from the pressures of a first full Major League season. Karros was chill. Yet he was at work, taking ground balls and experimenting with different ways to contort his body while doing so. By game time, he would be prim and proper, but his pregame attire and attitude were a window into how he has learned to function. “I’ve learned a ton about myself, more mentally than anything,” Karros said after sweating to his satisfaction that morning. “A big change that I’ve made is – it may sound cliché, but I’ve been living by it – is passion over perfection. “Early on, when you get up here, you want to show that you belong. You try to be perfect, almost. That’s no way to play baseball. There’s so much doubt and fear of messing up. So I’ve switched my perspective … rather than playing to be perfect, I’m playing with some fire, playing with some edge. I’m playing to have a lot of fun.” On Sunday afternoon, while knocking a three-run eighth-inning homer to propel the Rockies to a 7-6 victory over the Giants at Coors Field, there was no doubt for Karros. He smacked the ball a Statcast-projected 457 feet to give the Rockies their ninth series win this year (one more than in all of last year’s 43-119 struggle) and the 13th win in their last 25 games. After a slow start, when his at-bats were solid but results were at times maddeningly absent, Karros is having a level of fun that’s reflected in his offensive numbers. In his last 35 games, he has slashed .347/.431/.653 with nine doubles, two triples, six home runs and 18 RBIs. Sunday’s homer off Dylan Smith is a prime example of how Karros is trusting himself and fighting the urge to prepare to the point of uptightness. During Saturday night’s 6-4 loss to the Giants, Karros popped out on Smith’s first-pitch sweeper. So on Sunday, his approach to Smith was simple: Work the count and blast the fastball. “Once I got ahead in the count, I had a good feeling he was going to try to run one in on me,” said Karros, who smashed Smith’s 94.2 mph four-seamer and watched its flight until it landed on the concourse above the left-field bleachers.