Gomber 'locked in' during strong debut as Rox hitters overcome 16 K's

ATLANTA -- Rockies starter Austin Gomber skipped from the mound, punching the air. He didn’t care at all about Colorado hitters setting strikeout futility records on Sunday afternoon. In the end, even the offense could celebrate.

Gomber, making his first Major League start this season after recovering from left shoulder soreness that flared up during Spring Training, struck out four and held the Braves to two hits in five innings of the Rockies’ isn’t-baseball-grand 10-1 victory at Truist Park.

“There’s nothing like it, man, pitching in the big leagues,” said the 31-year-old Gomber, who will be eligible for free agency after this season. “I was obviously super-excited to be back.

“I felt it early in the bullpen, even warming up, that I was a little bit more locked in. I was able to execute the game plan, make pitches, get quick outs and try to keep us in the game.”

There was nothing like the strikeouts the Rockies endured over the last two games. But this time, the ineffectiveness on offense was nothing compared to Gomber’s inspiring return on the same day the club placed lefty Kyle Freeland on the 15-day injured list with low back tightness.

We’ll save strikeout trivia for later.

Let’s talk about Gomber, who had several strong stretches last season and was expected to be a key rotation cog before his throwing shoulder didn’t respond early in Spring Training. He threw a rehab start to open the Triple-A season, but didn’t feel right and took his time coming back.

“It was really nice to see him back out there,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. “He mixed well, used all his pitches. He pitched in, used his fastball and just had them off-balance. And you saw the competitor in him out there in game one.”

Gomber wins on pitch-mixing and forcing weak contact. Sunday was the Major League debut of Gomber’s alternate changeup. One runs to his arm side. The new offering has more direct downward movement. It all baffled a strong Braves lineup.

Gomber was efficient, with 55 strikes in his 76 pitches. Contact was weak, often in the air. The Braves were hitless until Michael Harris II and Eli White each singled with two out in the fifth. But Gomber finished the inning and touched off his personal celebration by forcing a Nick Allen bouncer to short.

“The best version of myself is throwing multiple pitches for strikes, getting guys off-balance, getting quick outs, keeping the defense involved,” Gomber said. “I’ve been around long enough to know that those are my strengths.”

Of course, this one will live forever in the strikeout books.

The Rockies struck out 16 times to run the total over the last two games to a club nine-inning record of 35 -- one shy of the Modern Era record (36 by the Mariners in 1986). Colorado’s previous mark in two games in the same season, 33, occurred this year on April 16 and 19. The Rox fanned 34 times over the 2022 finale and Opening Day in ‘23.

Braves starter Grant Holmes went 6 1/3 innings and struck out 15 -- for his first double-digit strikeout effort at any level in a career that started in 2014. But in the ninth, the Braves’ need to save bullpen arms led manager Brian Snitker having shortstop Luke Williams pitch.

The Rockies (14-57), who tied the 1932 Red Sox for the worst 71-game start in the Modern Era, canceled all that out with a little trivia of their own. They didn’t manage a hit until Braxton Fulford’s one-out single in the sixth.

But Ryan McMahon’s 10th homer of the season, to center field off Holmes, gave them a 2-1 lead to open the seventh. The Rockies scored six in the inning -- two on Jordan Beck’s double. It was the most runs on the road in an inning since they scored six in the eighth at Kansas City on June 2, 2023.

McMahon said his homer, after absorbing seven straight strikeouts, was partly attributable to Gomber flummoxing the Braves.

“He’s the ultimate competitor,” McMahon said. “I’ll stand out there if he’s giving up 19 runs and stay focused on defense, because I know he’s giving me everything he’s got.”

Fulford also had a sacrifice fly for the Rockies’ first run, drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth and tripled in three runs on a ball that looped just foul into short right field in the eighth. And, like McMahon, he saw the connection to Gomber.

“We go out there offensively and maybe don’t produce very much, then come back on defense and he’s shoving -- shutting them down -- it’s a momentum boost,” Fulford said.