ST. LOUIS -- It won’t appear in the box score, but Kyle Farmer certainly gets an assist for the Rockies’ dramatic 6-5 comeback victory over the Cardinals on Wednesday.
Called upon to pinch hit with a runner on and Colorado trailing, 5-4, in the ninth, Hunter Goodman used Farmer’s bat to face Cardinals closer JoJo Romero. Five pitches later, Goodman blasted a sinker over the center-field wall to complete the comeback.
“It's a long season, and his bat’s a little shorter than my bat, and I figured I might as well try something else right now,” Goodman said. “As the season goes on -- it's August, [the] Dog Days -- [you] get a little tired some days, so some adjustments like that can help.”
Goodman’s blast traveled a Statcast-projected 436 feet and landed in the center of the batter’s eye over the center-field wall. It came less than 24 hours after he hit the longest homer in Busch Stadium this season with a Statcast-projected 442-foot drive that propelled the team to a win.
He hit both moonshots with Farmer’s bat.
“It’s a gift,” Farmer said. “I turn 35 in five days, so I just keep on giving, I guess.”
Goodman has homered in five of his last 10 games and in six of his last 13. It is his National League-leading sixth home run in the ninth inning or later this season.
“He's an All-Star for a reason,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said of Goodman. “He loves those situations. He wants to hit in big time spots. So that's just who he is, man. He's really coming into his own this year, and I'm proud of him.”
Goodman’s winner wouldn’t have been possible without a relentless attack from the Rockies offense, which chipped away at deficits of two and three runs.
Ezequiel Tovar’s RBI single in the fourth got the Rockies on the board, and Kyle Karros singled and scored on a Braxton Fulford groundout to cut the St. Louis lead to 3-2 in the fifth.
“It might look different every night, but it's fundamental baseball,” Schaeffer said. “And I feel like, you know, you look around the defense today, Mickey [Moniak] playing good center field. I mean, all three games, I thought we played just solid baseball overall."
Moniak led off the sixth with a Statcast-projected 413-foot homer to right-center. Karros continued the effort with a leadoff double in the seventh, and he eventually scored on Fulford's sacrifice fly.
“I think that's what we have to do with where we're at as a club,” Karros said. “We can't throw away at bats. We got to go up there every single time and compete. And that showed today. I think we put up one and then one and then one, and then one, and then Goodie gets a hold of one, and that's how our team needs to compete.”
Goodman’s homer was set up by a leadoff walk by Karros, who coaxed the free pass after a seven-pitch at bat.
“That's big time right there for a young player in his, like, sixth game,” Schaeffer said.
Karros reached three times and scored three runs. Karros has hit safely in five of his first six games since making his debut on Friday.
“I think baseball is a huge game of confidence,” Karros said. “And to get the first one out of the way, my first at bat, that was huge. And then, yeah, to have some success and kind of settle in.”
Austin Gomber allowed five runs on nine hits in five innings against his former team, striking out two and walking one.
Nick Anderson, Jaden Hill and Jimmy Herget each pitched a perfect inning of relief and combined for four strikeouts before Victor Vodnik earned his second save in as many games.
“From the sixth inning on, when the 'pen came in, there wasn't one runner,” Schaeffer said. “I mean, that's locked down. They did a great job tonight, some guys stepping up in big situations, like Anderson and Hill. It's what we need, guys that you know are earning a role.”
After a tough start to the road trip, the Rockies return home hoping to build on this momentum.
“I think you've seen it for the last few months,” Goodman said. “The results haven't always been there for us, but there's not much quit in this team. I mean, we're showing up every day [and] we're trying to get better. We're trying to start winning more ball games and kind of change the culture around the clubhouse.”