Major League Baseball could have never predicted when they scheduled an interleague series in Mexico City between the Colorado Rockies and the Houston Astros that they would be in last place, each with a 7-19 record after nearly one month of play. After all, the Astros have only been removed from their World Series championship for only two years, with four World Series appearances in the last seven seasons. The Rockies made one losing appearance at the top 17 years ago.

Evenly matched, going in with Colorado designated as the home team, it was merely a trap the Rockies walked into. The sellout crowds in the Mexico City games were exuberant fans—for their ‘cross the border’ neighbors in Texas—showing up in full force and supporting the Astros. The home team, Rockies fans, were outnumbered in what felt like 10-1 in size, sight, and sound.

The Astros gave their fans a lot to cheer about. In Game One of the two-game series, the Astros bats soared over the fences in a 12-4 rout. Yordan Alvarez blasted two homers, each 461 feet over the right-center field wall. He became the third player since 2006 to have multiple 460+ foot home runs in a game.

The Rockies’ only lead in the series came in their first at-bat in the first inning of Game One, when Ryan McMahon hit a two-run homer from 459 feet to give Colorado a 2-0 lead. From there, it was all Astros the rest of the way.

“It felt good to be able to come back there,” Alvarez said. We’ve had games in the past where we fall down early and don’t have the opportunity to make a comeback. When I hit that (first) home run, I think it definitely changed the dynamic of the game and gave a lot of energy to the rest of the guys and the rest of the team, and we were able to continue scoring runs.”

The Astros’ 12-4 win on Saturday, followed by an 8-2 win on Sunday, snapped their five-game losing streak. The 7,350-foot altitude gave their bats some pop, with 20 runs scored, 23 hits, and six home runs for Houston.

“We had a lot of at-bats with runners in scoring position with the infield in, and we used the whole field,” Astros Manager Joe Espada said. “I thought our at-bats were really good, and that was very good to see.”

Fans were a mixture of the hometown locals and visitors from the U.S., including Houstonians and Denverites. But most noticeably, the jubilant fans leaving the stadium after Game One sang in unison by the thousands as they made their way home.

The Rockies sank to 7-21 on the season and went deeper into last place, the worst start in franchise history. From Mexico, they stay in the land of warmth and palm trees, facing a team with equal misfortune when they travel to Miami for the 6-21 Marlins for three games.

When asked about the mood and spirit of the team after losing 20 games in the first month, Manager Bud Black expressed his feelings. “It’s a fair question,” Black told the Sports Report. “We’re all competitive people, right. We want to win games here. We haven’t played our best baseball, and our record is indicative of that. But I’m very proud of our guys. Every day they come with energy and to use your word spirit to compete, there hasn’t been one sign of that not happening. And I’m proud of that.”

“I’m proud of the players first and the coaching staff for continuing to play hard, to play to win. But knowing this group of players like I do, they won’t give in to any sort of mindset of never competing. They won’t do it. So, the spirit is fine, the energy level is fine. We’ve just got to play better.”

For the Astros, the series was a chance to reset, refocus, and get right after a rough start. “I don’t think it’s a secret we were having a tough go of it offensively,” Yordan Alvarez said. “I trust the talent that our team has. I told the guys, ‘This is going to be our beginning of the season.’”