Precious little has gone right for the Rockies early this season, and for a while on a sun-splashed home opener at Coors Field, it looked like they would wash some of those sins away.
Then, the sins returned.
Until Ryan McMahon delivered sweet redemption with a titanic grand slam in the ninth off Jason Adam to lift the Rockies to a 10-7 victory. Fairbanks doomed himself by walking the bases full.
It was the third walk-off grand slam in Rockies history.
In what’s becoming a Rockies tradition, they appeared to blow the game in the ninth when the Rays scored five runs (four earned) off closer Justin Lawrence to take 7-6 lead.
Tampa scored the go-ahead run when Jose Siri reached on a throwing error by McMahon at third and Ben Rortvedt came into score. But truth be told, McMahon made an excellent play on Siri’s hard grounder and threw a one-hopper to Kris Bryant at first base. Bryant should have made the play, but he didn’t, and he was booed with gusto.
A sellout crowd of 48,399 soaked up the sunshine on a perfect day when the first-pitch temperature was 75 degrees, a record high on opening day in Denver, not counting the 2020 pandemic-shortened season.
It was a wild and crazy game.
Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar and Bryant each delivered two-run homers, turning the home opener into a genuine LoDo baseball party — for a while.
When the Rockies awarded Tovar a $63.5 million contract extension during spring training, general manager Bill Schmidt said, “He’s somebody we can build around.”
The 22-year-old Tovar delivered on those lofty expectations, mashing a two-run homer in the sixth inning to give Colorado a 4-2 lead.
Nolan Jones led off with a single to left, advanced to third on Ryan McMahon’s double, and scored on Elias Diaz’s sacrifice fly. Then Tovar stepped up and crushed lefty Colin Poche’s 2-1 slider 420 feet and into the left-field bleachers.
Bryant, Colorado’s highest-paid player, who entered the game hitting .103, was roundly booed in his first three at-bats. But he launched a sky-high, 422-foot homer down the left-field line in the eighth off Jacob Waguespack. The fans’ jeers quickly turned into cheers.
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Rockies starter Austin Gomber was wildly inefficient but strangely effective. His outing was short because he threw 89 pitches (57 strikes) in just four innings. He walked three and gave up four hits but countered that by racking up seven strikeouts.
Gomer needed 41 pitches to escape a rocky first inning, but he got three strikeouts to limit the damage to one run. As often happens, though, Gomber’s leadoff walk to Yandy Diaz haunted him. Diaz scored on Isaac Paredes’ single to make it 1-0.
The Rockies responded quickly in the bottom of the frame to tie the game on back-to-back one-out doubles from Brendan Rodgers and Nolan Jones.
The Rays took a 2-1 lead in the second, again profiting from Gomber’s free pass. Jose Siri walked, stole second and scored on Yandy Diaz’s RBI single to right.
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