DENVER — There have been a lot of long nights during this Colorado Rockies season, the kind when even the most optimistic folks would have trouble finding positives.

This was not one of those nights.

Starting pitcher Tanner Gordon shook off a recent funk with a solid outing, and several Rockies hitters played key roles in a 4-3 victory on Friday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Coors Field. The bullpen was stout. The hitting and baserunning were timely. The defense was nearly mistake-free.

Just a clean, professional victory against a recently surging team that still harbors faint hope of making the playoffs.

Gordon’s previous three starts were a disaster, with 24 runs (23 earned) allowed in 10 1/3 innings. His ERA had ballooned to 8.37.

This was better. Even the two runs Gordon allowed in the fourth came with a little misfortune: Jordan Beck was maybe one or two steps short of a ball that dropped into left field, and Jake McCarthy’s infield single was the softest ball put in play all night.

Gordon did put the first two runners on to start the sixth inning, and that was the end of his outing. Another soft McCarthy single plated a third run against Gordon, but Brenton Doyle threw out a runner trying to advance to third to limit the damage in the inning.

The final line for Gordon: Three runs on five hits in five-plus innings, with two strikeouts and one walk.

Gordon left this game with the lead because the Rockies built a 4-2 advantage with a varied offensive attack. Hunter Goodman’s 25th home run of the season in the bottom of the first got it started. The 449-foot blast, his second longest of the year, moved Goodman within three homers of matching the club record by a primary catcher (Wilin Rosario’s 28 in 2012).

Ryan Ritter created the second run in the third inning with smart baserunning. He doubled down the left-field line, then moved to third on a bouncer to the shortstop and scored on a sacrifice fly. Taking the extra base, even with the ball hit in front of him, helped double Colorado’s advantage.

After the Diamondbacks leveled the score with two in the top of the fourth, the Rockies went right back in front in the bottom of the frame. A Kyle Karros single and a Doyle double off the wall in right-center led to a Yanquiel Fernandez run-scoring groundout.

Karros singled twice, walked and made a fine leaping snag at third base. Warming Bernabel singled and walked as well as the young Rockies lineup found offensive contributions up and down the scorecard.

Tyler Freeman led off the fifth with a triple, then scored on a two-out bloop double by Jordan Beck.

Gordon’s work on the mound might have been upstaged by the man who relieved him. Jimmy Herget entered with two men on and no one out in the sixth. Not only did he get the Rockies out of the jam with the lead intact, Herget struck out the final four batters he faced, matching a season-best for the righty with the funky release point.

Juan Mejia and Victor Vodnik finished the job with a pair of dominant innings, combining for four strikeouts. Just like the rest of the roster, there’s been plenty of rough evenings for the bullpen.

This night looked more promising, for everyone involved.

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