The Colorado Rockies were buried early, somehow took the lead late, and still left Target Field with one of their tougher losses of the season.
Colorado fell to 32-50 with a 9-8 loss in 10 innings to the Minnesota Twins, who improved to 39-44 with their first walk-off win of the season. The Rockies trailed 7-0 after five innings, scored eight runs across the eighth and ninth, took an 8-7 lead, gave it back in the bottom of the ninth, and failed to score in extras before Minnesota ended it.
It was a comeback
good enough to matter. It was not quite good enough to win.
Sugano’s mix does not hold up
Tomoyuki Sugano’s final line was ugly, but the start was not as simple as a pitcher showing up without anything working.
Sugano used seven different pitch types, and the movement profile was more functional than the final line suggests. His sinker had more arm-side run than usual, his four-seamer had extra ride, and his splitter created real separation underneath the fastballs. But Minnesota still saw him well enough to do damage.
The game tilted early. After Taj Bradley retired the Rockies in order on six pitches in the top of the first, Sugano got Trevor Larnach to fly out before Byron Buxton singled to left. Kody Clemens followed by driving an 86 mph splitter to right field for a two-run homer. The ball left the bat at 102.5 mph and traveled 380 feet, giving Minnesota a 2-0 lead.
Sugano recovered enough to get Josh Bell to pop out and Victor Caratini to strike out swinging, but Minnesota had the early lead.
The second inning pushed it further. Royce Lewis opened with a single, and Brooks Lee followed with another two-run homer, this time on an 85.9 mph slider after Sugano had worked the count to 2-2. It was not one of Minnesota’s loudest swings at 93.9 mph off the bat, but it carried 348 feet to right field and made it 4-0.
Sugano settled briefly with clean innings in the third and fourth, but the fifth changed the line. After Tristan Gray lined out to open the inning, Jake McCarthy made a sliding catch in right field against Luke Keaschall for the second out.
Larnach then doubled to extend the inning, and Buxton followed with a 106.1 mph double down the third-base line to score Larnach and make it 5-0.
That was where the inning got away. Clemens walked, Sugano’s first free pass of the night, and Bell followed by driving a 93.5 mph sinker to center field for a two-run double. Buxton and Clemens both scored, stretching the lead to 7-0.
Sugano finished with five innings, eight hits, seven earned runs, one walk, two strikeouts, and two home runs allowed. He threw 85 pitches, generated only five whiffs on 33 swings, and allowed seven hard-hit balls on 20 balls in play. The pitch shapes were there. The swing-and-miss was not.
Bradley keeps Rockies quiet
Taj Bradley controlled the game for seven innings, even if the command was not perfect.
Bradley worked seven-plus innings, allowing three hits, two runs, three walks, and no home runs while striking out seven. He threw 92 pitches, generated 14 whiffs on 45 swings, and leaned heavily on a fastball that averaged 97.0 mph and reached 99.5 mph. His four-seamer made up 61% of his pitch mix, while the splitter and cutter came in at 18% and 16%, respectively.
Bradley threw 50 pitches out of the strike zone and walked three, but the Rockies did not turn those misses into enough pressure. When he came back into the zone, his fastball and splitter were good enough to keep Colorado from building an inning.
The first chance came in the second. TJ Rumfield walked to open the inning, and Troy Johnston followed with the Rockies’ first hit, a hard single to right field. But the inning ended with runners on the corners after Ezequiel Tovar struck out. Tovar had taken a 99 mph fastball for a ball earlier in the at-bat, but Bradley got him to chase well out of the zone to end the threat.
That became the pattern. Colorado had baserunners, but not enough of them in sequence.
Rumfield walked again in the fourth, but the Rockies could not turn it into anything. In the fifth, an ABS challenge turned a ball into strike three against Edouard Julien, giving Bradley another clean inning.
McCarthy had the loudest swing against Bradley in the sixth, jumping a first-pitch 94.5 mph four-seam fastball for a double to right field. The ball left the bat at 108.6 mph, but it was only Colorado’s second hit and came with the Rockies trailing 7-0. Bradley stranded him.
Bradley came back out for the eighth, but Tovar opened with a double and Julien followed with a walk after an ABS challenge confirmed the call. Minnesota went to Kody Funderburk with two aboard and nobody out. Both runners eventually scored, putting two earned runs on Bradley’s line, but the rally changed the box score more than the shape of his start.
Rockies storm back before falling in extras
The Rockies’ bullpen gave the offense a chance to make the game matter again.
Seth Halvorsen replaced Sugano in the sixth and worked a scoreless inning, striking out Lewis and pitching around his own missed-catch error. Juan Mejia followed in the seventh, allowed a leadoff single, then got out of the inning when Clemens grounded into a double play. John Brebbia handled the eighth, giving up a two-out double to Lewis but stranding him.
Together, Halvorsen, Mejia, and Brebbia combined for three scoreless innings, allowing two hits with one strikeout. It did not erase Sugano’s line, but it kept the score at 7-0 long enough for Colorado to make a real push.
The comeback started in the eighth. After Funderburk entered with two runners aboard and nobody out, McCarthy singled to load the bases. Mickey Moniak brought home Tovar with a groundout to make it 7-1. Hunter Goodman followed with a sacrifice fly to score Julien, and Rumfield lined a single to center to bring in McCarthy, cutting the deficit to 7-3.
Willi Castro added another single, but Tyler Freeman struck out as a pinch-hitter to end the inning with two runners on.
Then the ninth changed the game.
Cole Carrigg opened the inning with a walk against Eric Orze, and Julien doubled to center after a flyout, scoring Carrigg to make it 7-4. McCarthy followed with a two-run homer to right-center field, turning a four-run deficit into a one-run game.
Minnesota went to Anthony Banda, but Colorado kept going. Kyle Karros came off the bench and doubled to left, with Braxton Fulford entering as the pinch-runner. Goodman followed with the swing that completed the comeback, launching his 22nd home run of the season to left field. The ball left the bat at 116.2 mph and traveled 451 feet. Goodman knew it immediately, dropping his head and heading toward first as Fulford scored ahead of him.
The Rockies led 8-7.
Rumfield followed with a pop-up double into short center/right field that several Twins converged on and none of them caught. It was the visual summary of a Minnesota inning that had fully unraveled.
But Colorado could not close it.
Antonio Senzatela entered for the bottom of the ninth and struck out Gray for the first out, but Austin Martin and Ryan Kreidler followed with back-to-back singles. Buxton then chopped a 78.3 mph ground ball toward third. Castro waited on the hop, but the ball jumped over him and into left field. Martin scored, and the lead was gone.
Senzatela still got the game to extras. He got Clemens to fly out to left, then got Bell to lift a short flare to center at 72.7 mph. Carrigg raced in to make the catch, sending the game to the 10th tied 8-8.
Colorado had the first chance in extras and came up empty. With Freeman starting the inning at second, Carrigg grounded out and moved him to third. Tovar followed with a grounder to short against a drawn-in infield, and Freeman was cut down at the plate after breaking on contact. Julien grounded out to first to end the inning.
Minnesota did not miss its chance. Jimmy Herget came on for the bottom of the 10th with Bell starting at second before Kyler Fedko entered as a pinch-runner. Colorado intentionally walked Caratini to create force plays around the diamond, but Herget uncorked a wild pitch that moved Fedko to third. With the infield in, Lewis punched a single back through the middle, scoring Fedko and giving Minnesota a 9-8 walk-off win.
Final notes
McCarthy and Rumfield were at the center of Colorado’s comeback. McCarthy finished with three hits, including a double, a single, and the two-run homer that made it 7-6 in the ninth. Rumfield reached multiple times, drove in a run in the eighth, and added the strange pop-up double that captured the Twins’ ninth-inning collapse.
The Rockies went 4-for-10 with runners in scoring position, matching Minnesota’s 4-for-10 mark. Colorado finished with 11 hits, eight runs, and one error. Minnesota finished with 14 hits, nine runs, and no errors.
Colorado scored three runs in the eighth and five runs in the ninth after being shut out through the first seven innings. Minnesota had three two-out RBIs, including Bell’s two-run double and Buxton’s RBI double in the fifth.
Andrew Morris earned the win for Minnesota, improving to 3-2. Herget took the loss for Colorado, falling to 0-2.
Up next
The Rockies and Twins continue the series Saturday night at Target Field as Colorado looks to shake off one of its more painful losses of the season. Michael Lorenzen is scheduled to start for the Rockies, entering at 2-9 with a 7.11 ERA and 65 strikeouts. Minnesota will counter with Mike Paredes, who enters at 0-0 with a 4.05 ERA and 11 strikeouts.
First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 p.m. MT.
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