Jake McCarthy gave Colorado exactly the kind of night that makes a lineup feel dangerous from multiple angles. He blasted two home runs, ran wild on the bases, and finished with a stat line that barely looked real in the Rockies’ 8-6 win.
McCarthy went 4-for-5 with four runs scored, three RBI and two stolen bases, and he wasted no time getting started. He turned the first pitch he saw from Matthew Liberatore into a leadoff homer, then came back with another first-pitch shot in the sixth inning.
That put him in some elite territory. Per MLB.com, McCarthy became just the eighth player since 1900 to post at least four hits, two home runs and two stolen bases in the same game. His final at-bat only added to the absurdity of the night.
With one out in the ninth and Colorado ahead by two, McCarthy went hunting for a third homer.
"I swung at a ball that almost hit me," McCarthy told MLB.com.
After that, he adjusted fast. Seeing third baseman Nolan Arenado playing deep, he dropped a bunt down the third-base line for a single. He followed it with a stolen base and later came around to score on Kyle Karros' sacrifice fly, tacking on an insurance run for Colorado.
That sequence showed the full range of what McCarthy can do. The speed has always been there - he ranks in the 99th percentile in sprint speed, per Statcast - but now the power is showing up too.
The two-homer night pushed McCarthy to a career-high 13 home runs this season. Since July 1, he’s hitting .315/.348/.569 with seven homers and 30 RBI in 31 games, and he hasn’t lost the line-drive approach that has helped fuel the surge.
"Obviously, homers are fun, but I'm just trying to hit as many line drives as possible," McCarthy told MLB.com.
Statcast suggests the added pop isn’t coming from a massive bat-speed jump. His 71.1 mph average bat speed ranks in the 33rd percentile, and his 85.2 mph average exit velocity sits near the bottom of MLB. The bigger change has been in how he’s meeting the ball.
McCarthy’s 38.8% sweet-spot rate is more than 10 percentage points better than last season, his average launch angle has climbed from 6.5 degrees to 12.1, his line-drive rate has jumped from 16.5% to 27.0%, and his ground-ball rate has dropped by more than 10 percentage points.
For the Rockies, that kind of versatility matters. McCarthy can beat a team with his legs, punish a mistake with power, and still keep the contact profile that made him useful in the first place. If this version sticks, Colorado may have found a valuable team-controlled piece through 2028.
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