June gave the Colorado Rockies a handful of games worth circling, and the month closed with a mix of chaos, offense, and late-inning fight.
The wildest of the bunch came in a game that looked ugly for long stretches. Poor pitching and a pile of errors put the Rockies in a hole, but they clawed back with five runs in the eighth inning.
Before that rally, Colorado had stranded 10 runners through seven innings and struck out 10 times. Still, a few key bats kept the comeback alive: Kyle Karros went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, Jake McCarthy finished 2-for-4 with a home run, a double, and two walks, and Hunter Goodman delivered the biggest swing of the night with a three-run homer that pushed the Rockies ahead.
Antonio Senzatela picked up his fifth win of the season, and Colorado survived with a 9-8 victory despite leaving 12 men on base.
Then came the eruption in Las Vegas on Sunday, June 14, when the Rockies put up 23 runs against the Athletics for the first time in franchise history in a regular-season game. Colorado had already built a four-run lead in the first inning, and that early burst turned into a full-on hit parade.
Willi Castro led the way in RBI, going 4-for-6 with two home runs and seven RBIs. Goodman kept rolling, too, finishing 5-for-6 with two home runs, a double, and four RBIs.
Troy Johnston added a 2-for-5 day with a home run, a double, a walk, and four RBIs. By the end, the Rockies had 23 runs, 24 hits, five walks, and six home runs.
The month’s final highlight came against the Red Sox, and it might have been the most impressive win of the stretch. Colorado erased a deficit with five unanswered runs, scoring three in the seventh and two more in the eighth to win 8-6 and take two of three in the series on June 24. The series had already featured a ninth-inning game-winner from Jake McCarthy on Monday night, and two days later Cole Carrigg earned Player of the Game honors after going 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs.
In Other News...
Rockies Fans Have Heard This Before About Another Young Core Piece
Robert Calaz is the kind of Rockies prospect who naturally gets attention, because the tools are obvious enough to make people dream a little. The 20-year-old sits near the top of Colorados prospect group and has already shown the power and speed blend that keeps him on the radar, even while he continues working his way through the minors.
The challenge, as it so often is with young hitters, is turning that raw ability into something more reliable. Calaz is still trying to sharpen his plate approach and make better decisions in the strike zone, and until that happens, the discussion around his future role in Denver will stay mostly hypothetical. [Read more 🡒]
Rockies Fans Have Been Waiting For This C.J. Condon Surge
C.J. Condon keeps making it harder to ignore what he is doing at Triple-A Albuquerque. The Rockies prospect went deep twice and drove in five runs in Saturdays 11-5 win over Salt Lake, pushing his power surge into another gear as he continues to pile up production at the plate.
Condon has now homered in three straight games and leads all of Triple-A with 30 RBIs in June, exactly the kind of month that gets attention in an organization always searching for the next bat to break through. Zac Veen added to the big night with a homer of his own and stretched his hitting streak to 25 games, giving Albuquerque a pair of notable offensive streaks at once. [Read more 🡒]
Rockies Outfield Crunch Is Forcing A Trade Deadline Reality
The Rockies outfield mess has become one of the clearest signs that the roster is shifting under the deadline pressure. With multiple outfielders on the injured list at the same time, the club has had to lean on backups and prospects just to cover the ground, and that has opened the door for players such as Cole Carrigg, Ryan Vilade and others to get a longer look. It has also forced the front office to weigh the bigger picture, because the organization cant keep stockpiling outfield options forever without deciding which ones fit the next phase.
Colorados answer may come from the same place a lot of deadline answers do, by moving veterans with short-term value and using the return to shore up pitching. Mickey Moniak and Connor Joe are both on one-year contracts, which makes them natural names to monitor as the market develops, especially with younger players pushing for attention at multiple levels. The tricky part is sorting out who really belongs in the future plans and who is just filling innings until a deal gets done, and that part of the equation is still very much in motion. [Read more 🡒]