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The Brewers dared the Cave Man, but he brought the big club in the clutch on Monday night. Jake Cave’s walk-off single in the 10th inning lifted the Rockies to an 8-7 win over the NL Central-leading Brewers in the series opener at Coors Field, giving the Rockies consecutive wins for the first time in a month. Prior to Cave’s at-bat, the Brewers walked both Brenton Doyle and Nolan Jones to load the bases and get to the veteran, who made Milwaukee pay by lacing former Rockies prospect Joel Payamps’ first-pitch slider to center.

Nuggets rookie DaRon Holmes will start to get settled in Denver this week after arriving for his introductory news conference on Monday morning, where coach Michael Malone and owner Stan Kroenke were among the attendees. In what has been a whirlwind week for Holmes, who was drafted 22nd overall in the first round of the NBA draft last Wednesday, he shouted out one of his young teammates. “The first Nugget to reach out to me, and I’m gonna remember this for the rest of my life, was Julian Strawther,” he said.

Nathan MacKinnon might be the MVP of the 2024 offseason, too. The Colorado Avalanche made several signings Monday on the first day of free agency. None were more important to the club’s ability to compete for the Stanley Cup in 2025 than finding a way to bring Jonathan Drouin back — and there’s no way that happens without MacKinnon. Drouin signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract to run it back with the Avs after he had a breakout season with Colorado.

There wasn’t much Nuggets assistant general manager Tommy Balcetis was authorized to say when asked about the departure of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to Orlando in free agency, but what he did say spoke volumes about the defining storyline of this entire NBA offseason. Free agency will remain in its “moratorium” period for several more days before Caldwell-Pope’s new three-year contract with the Orlando Magic is made official, rendering it technically taboo to acknowledge.

The Nuggets’ offseason is not sexy, their path forward now defined by efficiency. That is the reality clobbering this franchise over the head as an expensive team dealing with a suffocating new collective bargaining agreement. It sounds like an excuse to return to a time when Denver was always a free agent’s second choice.

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders (left) hands a set of keys to Carrollton (Ga.) High School quarterback Julian Lewis during Lewis’ visit to the Boulder campus June 21-23. Sanders is a senior at CU, while Lewis, a five-star prospect for the 2025 class, could be the next star quarterback for the Buffs.