Hunter Goodman gave Coors Field the kind of night that can still stick with a losing team.
The Colorado Rockies were beaten 9-6 by the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday, but Goodman put together a monster performance anyway, blasting three home runs and driving in five runs in a game that quickly got away from Colorado. It was the sort of individual showing that cut through an ugly start and kept the home crowd engaged long after the Rockies were buried.
Cincinnati jumped on Ryan Feltner right away. Nathaniel Lowe started the scoring with a two-out, three-run homer in the first inning, Tyler Stephenson followed with a two-run blast in the same frame, and the Reds were up 5-0 before Colorado had even come to the plate for the second time. Goodman answered immediately with a solo homer in the bottom of the first, but the Reds kept pouring it on.
Sal Stewart added a three-run homer in the second, stretching the lead to 8-1 and ending any real chance for Feltner to settle in. Colorado’s starter was charged with eight runs on seven hits in 2.1 innings, with four walks and three strikeouts. One day after Tomoyuki Sugano worked 6.1 innings in a 10-3 Rockies win, the contrast was stark and underscored the larger issue facing Colorado’s rotation: the flashes are there, but the consistency isn’t.
Goodman kept swinging the game’s loudest bat. He launched a two-run homer off Hunter Greene in the sixth, then went deep again off Sam Moll in the eighth to pull Colorado within 9-5. Willi Castro added a solo homer in the ninth, but that was as close as the Rockies would get.
The big night pushed Goodman to 30 home runs on the season, leaving him one shy of matching his 2025 total of 31. With more than two months still left, 40 homers is a realistic mark if he stays healthy and keeps driving the ball the way he has.
Cincinnati had plenty of thunder of its own. Stephenson finished with two home runs and a double, while Lowe and Stewart each drove in three runs. Greene worked six innings and struck out seven for the Reds.
The Reds head to Seattle on Monday to open a three-game series against the Mariners, with left-hander Andrew Abbott set to start. The Rockies stay home and begin a three-game set against the Washington Nationals, with Kyle Freeland lined up to take the ball.
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