TJ Rumfield spent his first three trips to the plate doing what he’s done so often this season: stacking up clean singles and keeping the Rockies’ offense moving without much flash.
Then came the sixth inning, and the loudest swing of his day.
Rumfield’s career-high fourth hit was also his biggest, a Statcast-projected 456-foot blast that traveled farther than any of his 13 home runs and drove in two runs in the Rockies’ 10-3 win over the Reds at Coors Field on Saturday afternoon.
It was the final hit in a 14-hit day for Colorado, and the club’s only homer of the afternoon. The Rockies spread the damage around, too. Jake McCarthy and Cole Carrigg each dropped doubles in front of outfielders in the first inning, while Brett Sullivan added a second-inning triple on a hard grounder that got past first base.
Before Saturday, Colorado led the Majors in OPS (.815) and extra-base hits (146) since June 1. Rumfield, 26, entered the game as MLB’s rookie batting leader and pushed his average to .302 by going 4-for-5.
The bigger picture has been just as impressive. Colorado’s approach - putting balls in play and piling up solid at-bats - has produced numbers this team rarely sees, especially given the challenge of playing half its games at altitude and the rest in parks about 4,000 feet lower.
The Rockies are averaging 5.10 runs per game at home and 4.47 on the road. They haven’t scored that often away from home since averaging 4.72 in 2007, the season they reached the World Series.
For Rumfield, who arrived in an offseason trade with the Yankees, Saturday was another reminder of what Coors Field can do for a hitter with a good eye and some pop. The ballpark gives him plenty of room to work with, and when he squares one up, it can leave in a hurry.
His homer came against Reds left-hander Caleb Ferguson, making it Rumfield’s second left-on-left home run of the year. The other came against the Athletics’ Carlos Cortes, an outfielder who pitched late in the Rockies’ 23-9 win on June 14.
In Other News...
Rockies First Half Left One Core Piece Rising And Another Reeling
The Rockies first half offered a little of everything, but the clearest bright spot came from the catching position, where Hunter Goodman has given Colorado the kind of power production it rarely gets. He entered Sunday with 27 home runs, 51 RBI and an .853 OPS, enough to make him look like an All-Star-caliber bat even as the underlying approach remains a work in progress. His power has been real, but so have the swing-and-miss issues, and thats the tension the Rockies will keep living with as long as hes in the middle of the order.
TJ Rumfield has been the other encouraging development, giving the club a productive rookie season and a much-needed offensive lift at a time when the lineup has been searching for stability. Hes hit .302/.384/.485 with 13 home runs, 51 RBI and an .869 OPS, and his recent stretch has been even better, including a 4-for-5 day with a two-run homer and four RBI against the Reds. For a Rockies team trying to sort out which young hitters can be part of the next core, Rumfields rise has been one of the few easy answers, while Ezequiel Tovars regression has only sharpened the questions around the rest of the infield. [Read more 🡒]
T.J. Rumfield Is Forcing His Way Into Rockies Rookie History
The Rockies have had their share of memorable rookie seasons, from Andres Galarraga announcing himself as a force in the middle of the order to Jason Jennings turning into the kind of immediate contributor every club hopes to uncover. Troy Tulowitzki also belongs in that conversation, a reminder that even a strong debut does not always end with hardware attached, but it can still set the tone for a career and a franchise.
Now T.J. Rumfield is starting to push his way into that same class of first-year stories. The rookie first baseman is making a case for NL Rookie of the Year, and the way he has entered the conversation has put him in position to chase a benchmark the Rockies have not reached in a long time, with Sal Stewart of the Reds part of the race and the finish still very much to be sorted out. [Read more 🡒]
Hunter Goodman Just Entered Rare Rockies Territory At The Worst Time
Hunter Goodmans power surge has put him in some unusual company for the Rockies, and it came on a night when he did plenty of damage at the plate. His three-homer performance on July 19 pushed him to 30 home runs for the season, giving him back-to-back 30-plus homer campaigns and making him the first Colorado player to do that since Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story turned the trick in 2018 and 2019.
For a franchise that has spent years searching for consistent middle-of-the-order production, that kind of company matters. It also puts Goodman in a spot the Rockies would rather not have to navigate so close to the Aug. 3 trade deadline, with his name already surfacing in conversations around the league as clubs look for help and Colorado weighs what to do with one of its most productive bats. [Read more 🡒]