DENVER -- Kyle Karros’ dream was wild.
“I had dreamed of hitting a walk-off home run against the Dodgers, like, forever since I got drafted by the Rockies,” said Karros, whose father, Eric, played most of this career with the Dodgers. The elder Karros often had sons Kyle and Jared (a Dodgers pitching prospect out with an elbow injury) with him when he served as a guest coach in Spring Trainings; he now serves as a commentator on televised Dodgers games.
“I’ve dreamed of, like, pounding my chest and showing them my logo, doing all this stuff,” Karros said.
Karros was much more his cool self in the reality of his first Major League home run -- a two-run, sixth-inning shot when the Rockies were within hoping distance in the eventual 11-4 loss to the Dodgers -- with Eric Karros there to see it.
“When it actually happened, I was running the bases like, ‘There’s another homer,’” said Karros, who also made a diving stop while playing third base.
It was not just another long ball.
“I was in a two-strike count, just trying to battle -- then I barreled it,” Karros said. “I was like, ‘All right, I kind of got that decent,’ and then it carried out. Probably, around second or third, I was kind of looking. I have no idea where friends and family sit, but I was looking for [Eric]. I probably didn’t find him -- probably because he was in the nosebleeds.”
Kyle Karros guessed right.
Eric Karros, his 45-game stint in the broadcast booth finished for the season, was at the game, nervously repositioning himself for Kyle’s at-bats, two strikeouts -- one looking, the other swinging against Dodgers righty Emmet Sheehan.
“The first one, I was sitting with some Dodgers scouts,” said Eric, waiting for his son outside the Rockies’ clubhouse. “The first one, I was in the booth with ‘Spilly’ and Drew [Rockies color commentator Ryan Spilborghs and play-by-play announcer Drew Goodman].”
Eric showed a picture from his vantage point of the homer. In the top level of the stands on the first-base side, but lined up with the third-base line. The home run trot would end with his son running straight his way.
“That was my lucky spot,” Karros said. “That’s where I used to sit at UCLA. I used to sit and look directly. This was just a higher version of it. It’s crazy.”
Karros’ homer came in a loss that ended the Rockies’ win streak at four games (tied for their longest of the season). They fell into a 7-0 hole after three more tough innings for lefty Austin Gomber (0-7, 7.49 ERA) after yielding home runs to Alex Call and Shohei Ohtani among seven hits, four for extra bases.
“It’s not like it’s one pitch -- it’s the ability to throw any pitch right now,” the ever-honest Gomber said. “It’s just struggling to find that conviction, so I feel like I’m out there trying to figure out how to get outs instead of, ‘This is my identity, this is how I’m going to get outs.’”
Karros’ shot off Sheehan was part of making it interesting. Added to Brenton Doyle’s 12th homer of the season, a two-run shot in the fourth, the Rockies were down, 7-4, but the Dodgers pulled away late.
The homer was another serendipitous tale for Karros, who believes that from the first pre-Draft meeting with Rockies personnel, the union was more than mere coincidence.
Before Monday’s start of the series with the Dodgers, clubhouse manager Mike Pontarelli asked Karros to sign items in the event that they would need them to exchange with the fan who caught his first career homer.
“He was anticipating me doing it this series, as was everyone,” Karros said.
Dad is heartened by the demeanor his son has embraced. He has seen it, from Kyle’s calm handling of a quick trip through the system after being selected in the fifth round in 2023, to a lengthy and enchanting meeting with a New Mexico man who sold him a ring, said to be from a meteorite gathered in Africa. Kyle explained that the ring, which is with him off the field, reminds him to enjoy where he is -- no matter where he is.
“If he truly believes what he says, which I think he does, that’s gonna do him well for this life,” said Eric, who said his wife, Trish, instilled her son’s demeanor. “Because I was the rollercoaster. And it’s no way to play.”
Kyle Karros said he looked forward to postgame, beyond-baseball, father-son time.
“We’ve had our ups and downs with the baseball thing, and it got to the point where I didn’t like him coming to games,” he said. “Obviously, he’s here tonight and I started the game with two strikeouts. I’m like, ‘OK, this guy is going to be banned. He’s never coming back.’ Then I did that one, so that was good for him.
“He’ll get another invite.”