Tyler Paddor | March 30, 2025

Continuing with our series of the 30 greatest moments at Coors Field in honor of the stadium’s 30th Anniversary, we dial up the depth and consider some of the more legendary performances in the mile high baseball confines with moments from Troy Tulowitzki and Jon Gray.

Read more from the 30 in 30 Series

• Coors Field Moment No. 1 – Game 163: Colorado completes their improbable run to Rocktober
• Coors Field Moment No. 2 – Dante Bichette christens the Rockies’ new baseball cathedral
• Coors Field Moment No. 3 – Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki and the Colorado Rockies are World Series bound
• Coors Field Moment No. 4 – Nolan, Bloody Nolan: Arenado’s walk-off cycle spurs Rockies to end postseason drought
• Coors Field Moment no. 5 – The Toddfather delivers a walk-off domino for Rocktober

#11: Troy Tulowitzki’s Unassisted Triple Play – April 29th, 2007

We all know about the magic that unfolded later in 2007. While the club’s 13-1 record to close out the season is the real reason we got to see a historic Rockies season, Troy Tulowitzki just might have gotten the ball rolling in April that year. Against Atlanta, the star shortstop turned a triple play… all by himself.

Aaron Cook started on the hill, delivering six innings with nine hits, five earned runs, and two strikeouts. He had cruised through the 5th inning before giving up four hits in the sixth inning that plated a trio of runs. The future franchise-leader in starts (206) for the Rockies managed to get through the inning, but the Braves had already tied the contest at five runs a piece.

On for the seventh was righty Zach McClellan for what would be one of only 12 career appearances. The 2000 5th round pick got into early trouble, giving up an immediate pair of singles to Kelly Johnson and Édgar Rentería with the legendary Chipper Jones set to bat.

Courtesy of his trademark elite plate discipline, Jones worked a full count, as he did 90 other times during the 2007 season. In his 91 total full count plate appearances that year, Jones managed a 1.284 OPS. On this occasion, there wouldn’t just be one out after Jones’ at bat, let alone two.

Jones smacked a liner towards shortstop that may have gone for a hit under different circumstances. Johnson (on 2B) and Rentería (on 1B) were set in motion for a hit and run that would have easily both netted runs had the ball gone in the gap for a hit. Fortunately for the Rockies, some rookie out of Long Beach State University was positioned perfectly.

Tulowitzki gloved the liner to putout Jones, stepped on second to putout Johnson, and tagged Rentería who was practically on second base following a steal attempt. Tulo threw the ball over the first base to guarantee the out on Rentería, just in case, but it was unnecessary. Crazy enough, Todd Helton tossed that ball into the stands. Talk about a historic baseball.

Just like that, Tulowitzki had helped fellow rookie McClellan escape a jam and keep the Rockies tied at five-all, avoiding a 7-5 run deficit.

Most notably, there have only been 15 unassisted triple plays in MLB history, making them even more rare than a perfect game (24 all time). This play was so fitting to really kickstart one of the most legendary careers in Rockies history with Tulowitzki going on to win a pair of NL Gold Gloves (should have been far more than that) among many other accomplishments he achieved with his bat.

Atlanta would strike in the eighth and ninth to take a two-run lead. The Rockies rallied in the bottom of the ninth, started by a pair of walks from Willy Taveras and Tulowitzki. Helton would walk one batter later to load the bases for Matt Holliday who singled to drive in Taveras and keep the bases loaded.

Brad Hawpe kept the party alive, driving in a key run on a week ground ball that Atlanta could not turn for a game-ending double play. With the game now tied at seven, the Rockies would take things to extra innings and belabor into the 11th inning.

On a toasty April afternoon, Holliday came to the plate and used the deepest part of the yard to hit a walk-off two-run shot off Steve Colyer (what would be the antepenultimate game of his career), giving the Rockies a riveting 9-7 win and their 10th win of the season.

Back to 2007 magic, the Rockies had started off 9-15 going into this game. From this point on, they finished 81-58 (.582) thanks to this pivotal and fabled game that can be considered a lighting of the fuse for 2007 Rocktober.

#10: The Gray Wolf’s 16 Punchout Performance – September 17th, 2016

The Rockies snagged Jon Gray with the third overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft, just one spot behind Kris Bryant, giving the club perhaps their first ace-upside prospect.

Gray largely cruised into the big leagues with a 3.82 ERA in 53 MiLB starts before getting the call to debut in August 2015, just over two years after being drafted. Gray made nine starts down the stretch that season with a 5.53 ERA. If you’re like me and prefer some ERA estimators like FIP and xERA, you’ll be pleased to know Gray deserved an earned run average closer to 4.00.

With those peripheral numbers in his corner, Gray was primed for a breakout 2016 season. Through early September, Gray performed well. Until September 10, Gray’s 4.69 ERA and 1.28 WHIP were solid for a Rockies pitcher tossing half their games at Coors Field. Gray had racked up four double-digit strikeout performances and completed at least seven innings 10 times until that point.

September got off to a rocky start for Gray who looked to be fading down the stretch. In his first two September starts, Gray logged 11 innings, gave up 15 hits, walked 14, and allowed 10 runs to cross the plate. Whatever happened the rest of the way, Gray had still performed admirably in his first full season.

Then, on a warm autumn night at home against the Padres, the Gray Wolf truly came into his own. The 24-year-old started with a base hit to bonafide Rockies’ killer Wil Myers only to erase him with a successful pickoff attempt moments later on a successful challenge by then-manager Walt Weiss. Gray would also pick up a strikeout of Luis Sardiñas in the first.

The Rockies went hard in the bottom of the first, tagging Edwin Jackson for a pair of two-run homers — one each off the bat of Nolan Arenado and Tom Murphy — to invigorate the atmosphere at 20th and Blake.

Gray followed up the offensive barrage with four strikeouts in the second frame. Yes, four strikeouts.

Ryan Schimpf, Jon Jay (who reached on a strike-three passed ball), Oswaldo Arcia and Derek Norris all fell victim to Gray’s stuff in that inning. It was just the 74th time in MLB history that a pitcher had struck out four batters in an inning (that list is now at 93).

In the third inning, Gray picked up a pair of strikeouts: one against Alexi Amarista and one off Jackson in the nine-hole. That brought his total to six punchouts through three. Gray added two more strikeouts in both the fourth and fifth innings, along with another strikeout of Jackson to bring the total to 10.

Colorado would extend their lead in the bottom of the fifth with Murphy’s second homer of the game, putting up the club 8-0 and knocking Jackson out of the game, leading the Padres’ to use pinch hitters the rest of the night for the pitcher spot.

Gray picked up his second strikeout of Wil Myers in the sixth before striking out another pair in the seventh, bringing him to 14 strikeouts. At 92 pitches under his belt, the stepping out the first base dugout for the eighth inning seemed all but certain.

Though his velocity in the eighth began to wane, Gray’s fastball was 94 mph versus the 96-97 mph range he sat to kick off the ballgame. As a result, Gray did not pick up another K that inning, taking him into the final frame at 101 pitches.

Gray came out with extra energy for the last three outs, hitting 96 mph once again. Gray got a one-pitch out of Sardiñas before dicing up Adam Rosales with a painted fastball for strike three.

Starting Schimpf off at 108 pitches, Gray went all out to fill up the strike zone. Schimpf fouled off a couple of tough pitches before Gray ripped off a 91 mph slider to set down Schimpf and cap a historic night. SIXTEEN strikeouts to set the club record. And all of coming at a mile high.

Gray finished the game with 25 swings and misses. In the pitch-tracking era, only a handful of pitchers have ever cracked 30 in a game. Gray’s slider alone induced 15 whiffs on just 17 swings for an otherworldly 88% swing-and-miss rate.

This performance not only capped off the Rockies single-game strikeout record, but it also secured the premise that Jon Gray had in fact lived up to his billing as the best Rockies pitching prospect of all-time, further setting the tone for Gray’s most effective — though limited — season in 2017.