The Colorado Rockies came together to work through the weekend on a high note. After a bleak August and September, the fight that this team flashed throughout the season was on display again tonight. With a strong opponent in the Chicago White Sox, playing for their division title, the Rockies held their ground and came away with a win. With several players facing off against their former teams on either side and with milestones being hit in the Rockies clubhouse, it was an emotional Saturday night game.
Blink and you’ll miss Davis Martin
Talk about a hot start for the Rockies.
Colorado has been on the wrong end of first- and second-inning beatdowns all season long. They flipped the script today and got the jump on the White Sox, ending starter Davis Martin’s day before the end of the first inning.
Leadoff hitter Jake McCarthy reached on an error by Martin before being moved to third on a Cole Carrigg single. Hunter Goodman struck out and it felt for a moment like Chicago might escape with Colorado running into their familiar problem of stranding runners. That worry proved to be unfounded, with TJ Rumfield hitting an RBI line drive to right.
Connor Norby drew a walk on five pitches that weren’t close to the zone, prompting a mound visit and showing the short leash for the starter. An Adael Amador single drove in two runs for a 3-0 Rockies lead.
With the AL Central on the line and the Sox feeling like Martin just didn’t have it today, he was pulled quickly after recording just two outs on 25 pitches and allowing three runs on three hits with a walk and a strikeout. Noah Schultz entered in relief to grab the final out before the Rockies recorded a 1-2-3 inning.
Winding down the season on some happy notes
Given that this year marked the Rockies’ fourth-straight 100-loss season, things were — obviously — not sunshine and rainbows. But with a marked improvement in their record compared to 2025 and a swath of fun, young players on the roster, there were plenty of good times to be had. The Rockies added to that list today.
Rumfield has been hitting well and hitting often this year. His RBI single in the first inning put his average at the .300 mark on the season. With that, manager Warren Schaeffer rewarded him with a nice early break to protect that number. Connor Norby shuffled to first base to replace Rumfield defensively, while Kyle Karros entered the game to bat fourth in Rumfield’s place.
The Rockies and White Sox traded some long ball blows in the early innings. In his first at-bat against his old team since the trade, Brenton Doyle hit a solo home run to put Chicago on the board. Luisangel Acuña would add another solo dinger for the White Sox in the bottom of the third inning.
But the biggest home run among them came for the Rockies in the top of the third. Goodman hit his long-awaited 40th home run of the season.
With the 381-foot shot to left field, Goodman joined a list of just seven other times a National League catcher has hit 40+ homers, joining the likes of Johnny Bench, Roy Campanella, and Mike Piazza. It’s the last 40-home run season for Colorado since Nolan Arenado reached that mark in 2019. Goodman caps off the best offensive season by a Rockies catcher in franchise history.
Starter José Quintana had an emotional day as well, facing off against the club where he spent nearly the first decade of his career. After a season of injuries, Quintana pitched a strong first and put the Rockies in a position to win before exiting after three innings of work, giving up two solo home runs as his only two hits allowed, alongside three strikeouts.
Ezequiel Tovar has found some good moments late in the season after a brutal start. He added a solo homer of his own in the fourth inning as he continues to rediscover his rhythm at the plate.
As the Rockies went up 5-2, the Cleveland Guardians led 5-3 in their matchup across the AL Central, making the situation more dire for the White Sox.
Steady as she goes through the seventh
After the early flurry of runs, both bullpens kept things where they were through the next few innings with little action.
Ryan Feltner entered for Quintana and immediately logged a 1-2-3 inning, including a four-pitch strikeout of Kyle Teel. He allowed a hit and a walk in the fifth, but remained unscathed, getting Randal Grichuk to pop up for the third out. His biggest challenge came in the sixth inning. After getting the first two outs, he allowed a single to Teel and grew frustrated after another single to Sam Antonacci. He responded with a strong strikeout of Colson Montgomery.
After Martin and Schultz, the various White Sox pitchers held their own, too. Jordan Hicks worked a scoreless, hittless fifth inning, before Sean Newcomb pitched a shutout sixth inning. Newcomb got the first two outs of the seventh, but a double by Carrigg led to a move to the bullpen for Huascar Brazobán, who worked out of the inning.
The offense flared back up in the bottom of the seventh inning. After a walk to Miguel Vargas, a ball got by Amador putting runners on the corners. Grichuk grounded for the second out, scoring a run in the process to bring the Sox within two at 5-3. Feltner was pulled there for Brennan Bernardino. Things got dicey, as the always dangerous Munetaka Murakami came up to bat. He hit a deep fly ball to the warning track that was, thankfully, just short.
With eyes on the scoreboard at Rate Field, the Guardians held an 8-5 lead heading into the ninth inning, putting the White Sox’ division hopes on the brink.
Closing time
The White Sox wouldn’t go down without putting another scare in the Rockies. Chase Meidroth entered the game to replace Braden Montgomery and kicked off the eighth inning with a double. A Teel single put runners on first and third with no outs and the White Sox still just down two.
Bernardino went into his bag for another clutch inning, one of many he’s put up this year. He logged the first out with a three-pitch strikeout on Antonacci, getting him to swing at a curveball outside. Next, he was fired up after getting Colson Montgomery to ground into a double play on one pitch.
As the Guardians extended their lead to 11-5 out in Kansas City, the Rockies picked up some insurance of their own and told the White Sox faithful, “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
Colorado started to close things out with some small ball. Jordan Beck doubled, before being moved to third on a Brett Sullivan sacrifice bunt. Tovar flew out for the second out, but McCarthy drew a walk on six pitches to keep things alive. Carrigg delivered a single to put the Rockies up 6-3.
Why stop there? Goodman added to the history books with his second home run of the night, his 41st of the year. The three-run shot put the Rockies up 9-3. Bernardino swung the game with 1.1 innings pitched and no runs allowed on two hits. In tandem with the Guardians result, it slammed the door on the AL Central divisional race.
The extra insurance paid off, as Jordan Romano struggled to end things. A wild pitch that would have been a strikeout for out number one instead put a runner on. Romano then walked Vargas, setting up a three-run homer from Andrew Benintendi to make it a 9-6 game. Romano settled down after that for three straight outs to put the game to bed.
Final thoughts
The Rockies came together as a team for a strong, well-rounded victory, one of their best over the last few months of the season.
In the postgame discussion, the emotion of the game was present. Goodman gave props to his team for not calling it quits this late in the year and continuing to fight and try to get better every day. He dished out compliments to Rumfield, Quintana, Feltner, and the rest of the bullpen for big nights all around.
Goodman himself deserves heaps of praise. His two-home run game pushed him past Johnny Bench for the most road home runs by a catcher in NL history. Schaeffer called it “an incredible feat by an incredible guy.”
Schaeffer spoke to the resilience of the team. “I thought there was redemption there.”
He pointed to Amador responding by getting a double play after a fielding error, to Quintana and Feltner battling, to Bernardino for locking down a double play after a rough start to the inning, and to Tovar finding his swing and finishing the year strong offensively.
Above all, Schaeffer pointed to the model that tonight’s opponent laid out. After dropping 100 games last year, the White Sox are a playoff team this year.
“It can happen. Nobody’s saying it can’t happen, and we feel like we’re on the right trajectory. It’s on the right path.”
Up Next
We bid farewell to another season of Rockies baseball with Game 162 on deck Sunday afternoon.
Kyle Freeland (4-11 in 25 starts, 6.58 ERA) is set for perhaps his last game as a Rockie as an unrestricted free agent. Anthony Kay (9-9 in 30 starts, 4.53 ERA) is the probable pitcher for the White Sox.
The Rockies and White Sox wrap up the series and the season with a rubber match scheduled for a 1:10 p.m. MDT first pitch.
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