McGee developing ‘confidence’ against NL West

DENVER — For the past couple of weeks, Rockies closer Jake McGee has demonstrated that if confidence comes before positive results, a player can handle the capricious nature of a job that can go wrong even when a player does things right.

McGee, who protected a one-run, ninth-inning lead — and faced D-backs slugger Paul Goldschmidt to end it — on Wednesday afternoon in an 8-7 victory over the D-backs at Coors Field, had struggled during the season’s early weeks.

A five-run ninth-inning meltdown to blow a save on April 24 against the Dodgers was a lowlight. While other performances were better, the pinpoint fastball location that was his calling card the previous six seasons with the Rays hadn’t made the trip west. Part of it was simply learning new hitters. Training in Florida and playing in the East meant he saw few of the hitters that he’d face regularly with the Rockies.

Also, after throwing fastballs 94-96 percent of the time with the Rays, McGee learned a curveball at the Rockies’ behest. Bullpen coach Darren Holmes had succeeded with one as a player with the Rockies. Learning how and when to use it, and fighting mechanical issues that took away fastball command, took time.

“I started to …

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