Hunter Goodman was working on a nice game when he stepped into the batters’ box in the bottom of the eighth inning.
He made a career night with one more swing.
Goodman’s go-ahead grand slam was the exclamation point on a 9-5 victory Friday night for the Colorado Rockies against the Chicago Cubs in front of 38,406 at Coors Field. It was Goodman’s second home run of the game and his third hit. He had seven runs batted in, the most by a Colorado hitter since Elias Diaz had seven in a Sept. 9, 2022, game against Arizona.
“You work every day for nights like those,” Goodman said. “All the work in the cage, all that stuff. It’s what you dream about growing up, having nights like that.”
The Rockies’ bullpen has been a strength of late, but Michael Busch crushed a three-run homer off reliever Victor Vodnik to pull the Cubs even in the eighth inning. Chicago had put two guys on with no outs twice since the first inning without scoring, but Busch left no doubt with a moonshot into the second deck in right field.
Before that misstep, Adalyn Gomber’s dad didn’t work out his first-inning issues while on leave for her birth, but he pieced together an excellent outing in his first start back.
Austin Gomber allowed a pair of runs on three hits and a walk in the first inning. He’s now allowed 33 runs on 47 hits and 12 walks in 28 first innings, an ERA of 10.61. That was all for the Cubs against him — Gomber went six innings with just the two runs allowed and was in line for a win before the Busch home run.
Gomber now has a 2.84 ERA in the 130 innings he’s pitched after the first this season.
“Sometimes it’s not going to be pretty, or you’re not going to have your best stuff, but you’ve got to find a way to make it work,” Gomber said. “I thought when I needed to make pitches in big spots, I did.
“It felt like I was OK until I needed to be good, and then I was good.”
Gomber entered the game with an MLB-high 27 home runs allowed. A big key to this one: He kept the ball in the field of play, while the Cubs pitchers could not.
The Cubs had multiple chances against Gomber after the first inning, but he induced an inning-ending double play in the fourth and then got back-to-back-to-back weak fly ball outs after the first two guys reached base in the sixth.
Goodman had the big hit during a three-run second inning to put the Rockies in front. His 430-foot, two-run homer to left field gave Colorado a 3-2 advantage. Brendan Rodgers got the Rockies on the board with a double down the left-field line that scored Ryan McMahon before Goodman’s two-out heroics.
Goodman also pushed across the club’s fourth run in the fourth inning with a soft line drive to left that plated Michael Toglia. He didn’t miss another home run by much in the sixth inning, sending Cubs centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong toward the wall with a 401-foot out that would have been gone in five of the 30 MLB parks.
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Since hitting five homers in eight days in mid-June, Goodman had been mired in a 13-for-86 slump (.151) with 28 strikeouts and just two home runs in his past 31 contests.
“With just a couple weeks left, there is impact to be had for these young guys,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “They’re wanting to make a statement and letting us know that they’re major-league players. A night like this from (Goodman) helps his cause.”
Ezequiel Tovar provided what looked like insurance at the time with an opposite-field home run in the seventh to make it a 5-2 advantage. Tovar has also been slumping at the plate during the stretch run. He was hitting .196 with a .226 on-base percentage and four home runs since Aug. 1 (36 games), but singled in the second along with his 23rd homer of the year.
NOTES: Black confirmed before the game that Antonio Senzatela will make his first start since May 10, 2023 on Monday night. Senzatela had Tommy John surgery in July 2023 to repair the ulnar collateral ligament sprain in his right elbow.
Black also said that Kris Bryant (back) is not close to returning to the lineup, and said it’s “increasingly possible” that his 2024 season is over. Bryant has two home runs in 37 games.
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Saturday’s pitching matchup
Cubs RHP Jameson Taillon (6-1, 3.92 ERA) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (6-4, 3.30)
6:10 p.m. Saturday, Coors Field
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: 630 AM
Freeland is 5-4 with a 3.36 ERA in 14 starts since returning from injury in late June. He’s been rolling of late, yielding a total of five earned runs in his past four starts. His two September outings have included nine strikeouts and no walks in 11 innings, with one earned run allowed combined. Freeland’s 3.17 K/BB ratio leads Rockies pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched.
Tallion has also allowed just one run combined in his past two starts. He struck out six in six innings of one-run ball in last start against the New York Yankees after seven shutout frames against the Pittsburgh Pirates in his first September outing. Taillon’s striking out fewer batters per nine innings (6.9) than any year of his career, but his OPS against (.689) is his lowest since 2019.
Pitching probables
Sunday: Cubs RHP Kyle Hendrickson (3-11, 6.51) at Rockies RHP Paul Quantrill (8-9, 4.63), 1:10 p.m.
Monday: Diamondbacks TBA at Rockies RHP Antonio Senzatela (0-0, 0.00), 6:40 p.m.
Tuesday: Diamondbacks TBA at Rockies TBA, 6:40 p.m.