PHOENIX -- Reasons to celebrate have been hard to come by for the 2025 Rockies, but the club got a big one on Saturday night, and the evidence was all over new manager Warren Schaeffer when he met with the media postgame.
Still sporting shaving cream on the side of his face and his uniform soaked in mouthwash and “all kinds of liquids” after getting hauled into the shower in a laundry cart for a celebratory dousing, Schaeffer was still beaming after his first win since taking over as Rockies manager, a hard-fought 14-12 victory over the D-backs at Chase Field.
“Age-old tradition,” Schaeffer said as he wiped some of the shaving cream off his ear. “That was fun. That’s really cool. Once in a lifetime.”
Schaeffer was quick to deflect the attention to his players, who racked up 19 hits and delivered a signature win for a club that hasn’t had many at all.
“I’m happy for them,” Schaeffer said. “That was a battle win. … Quality at-bats from the top to the bottom.”
Truly.
Jordan Beck homered twice, Hunter Goodman and Kyle Farmer each went deep and had four RBIs and Michael Toglia had a key hit off the bench, but the biggest jolt might have come from recently activated Ezequiel Tovar.
In his second game back from the injured list, Tovar went 5-for-6, hit his first home run of the season and was a double shy of hitting for the first road cycle in franchise history. It was the shortstop’s first career five-hit game, and he helped put his new skipper in the win column.
“My job, in my mind, is just to help him as much as I can,” Tovar said. “Whatever happens out there, I’m going to try to help him any way I can.”
The Rockies (8-37) are still off to the worst 45-game start in the Modern Era (since 1900), but the wins will start to come if the offense can consistently put together nights like this, and Tovar’s presence goes a long way to making that happen.
Saturday’s showing by the 23-year-old defending Gold Glove winner is what Schaeffer was hoping to see from a player who last season hit .269 with 26 home runs and a National League-leading 45 doubles.
Tovar sustained the injury while attempting a diving play in the second game of the season, a 2-1 win over the Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Then he landed hard on the hip again during a 17-2 loss to the Brewers at Coors Field on April 9 and sat out the next day’s game. After that, he played through it until he couldn’t anymore.
Compromised, Tovar batted .212 with four doubles, a triple and no home runs in 16 games -- and he was powerless to do much about the Rockies’ early travails.
“It was something that was lingering for a while,” Tovar said. “As the season went on, I thought it was something I could play through and get out of it, but it got out of hand.
“Thankfully I’ve been able to get healthy and come back, and now it’s something I’m going to continue to work on in my exercises and my workouts, make sure I can control it and stay off the injured list.”
Things have changed quite a bit since Tovar went down. Schaeffer is now in the manager’s chair, with Bud Black relieved of duties on May 10. Tovar’s only Major League hitting coach, Hensley Meulens, was replaced on April 17 by Clint Hurdle, who has shifted to bench coach under Schaeffer. Farm system hitting coordinator Nic Wilson and former Albuquerque hitting coach Jordan Pacheco are on Schaeffer’s staff.
Tovar is familiar with all the new coaches from his time in the Minor League system. But he will be in position to do more to help the club than any of them.
“The guys know that Tovie is part of the solution, a big part of it,” Schaeffer said. “All the leaders in [the clubhouse], they love when they see Tovie show up, everybody does. He’s a big, huge part of what we do, one of the biggest.”
The Rockies still have a lot of work to do to get away from the “historic bad start” conversation, but securing Schaeffer’s first win in such a dramatic way against a rival like the D-backs could go a long way toward easing the pressure.
“That was a battle out here in the desert,” Schaeffer said. “I mean, that was a knock-down, drag-out fight on both sides. I’m just glad we came out on top.”