Photo via @Rockies/X

Eli Whitney | April 7, 2026

Monday nights at Coors Field have a way of taking on a life of their own, and this one was no exception. The Rockies sent 14 batters to the plate in a jaw-dropping eight-run fifth inning, survived a late Houston rally, and walked away with a 9-7 win over the Astros in front of 16,301 fans – their second straight victory and first back-to-back wins of the 2026 season.

​For four innings, it looked like another long night in Denver. Ryan Feltner allowed two runs in the first on a pair of two-out doubles from Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa before Cam Smith deposited a 2-0 pitch 462 feet into the Coors Field seats in the fourth – the longest home run in the majors this season – to make it 3-0. The Rockies managed just two hits through four frames, and the crowd on hand had little to cheer about. Then the fifth inning happened.

​It began modestly enough. Willi Castro singled, Brenton Doyle walked, and Jake McCarthy laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up. When Houston pulled starter Cody Bolton in favor of Ryan Weiss, the floodgates opened. Kyle Karros worked a walk to load the bases. Edouard Julien lined a single to right-center to score two. Hunter Goodman singled to score another. Troy Johnston doubled up the middle on a ground ball that hit the second base bag to plate a fourth. TJ Rumfield – still somehow finding ways to announce himself at the major league level – roped a triple to left-center to drive in two more, and when Castro and Karros followed with RBI singles of their own, Colorado had erupted for eight runs in the inning. Fourteen batters came to the plate. The crowd rose to give them a standing ovation as the inning came to a close. “I really liked our at-bats tonight,” Schaeffer said afterward. We took balls. We looked a lot more comfortable tonight.” He was careful to push back on any notion that fortune had played too large a role. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to run away from the word luck,” he said. “The one ball that hit the bag – that’s one. The rest of that was not luck.”

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The ball hitting the bag belonged to Troy Johnston, a moment that Johnston himself acknowledged with his ever-present grin. “Altuve told me it was a double (not an error),” Johnston said. “But I didn’t believe him.” By the time the game was over, Johnston had authored one of the more memorable performances of the young season. Three hits, a home run in the sixth off the very first pitch he saw from Weiss, an improbable double, a perfectly placed bunt single, and a throw home in the eighth that prevented Yanier Diaz from scoring. He finished triple shy of the cycle. “He did it all tonight,” Schaeffer said. “Homer, bunt single that laid right on the line, double. He’s playing good baseball.” Johnston himself kept things in perspective. “We are trying to put a good product on the field every night,” he said. “The city wants to win. We’re going to try to do our best to win.” It was his first home run at Coors Field, and he was rewarded for it – a purple coat waiting in the dugout for the occasion.

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Feltner earned the win with 5.1 innings of work, allowing four runs while generating seven ground ball outs and pitching with the aggression that Schaeffer has been preaching since spring training. “I saw another good outing to build on,” the manager said. “He attacked the zone, a lot of early contact – which means he’s in the zone. I thought it was a good step forward.” Feltner attributed the third time through the order catching up with him more to the Astros making adjustments than any loss of stuff, “They kind of saw me their third time around,” he said.

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Jimmy Herget stranded inherited runners with a 1.2 inning stint in the sixth and seventh, and Zach Agnos ran into trouble in the eighth – allowing two runs to cut the lead to 9-7 and making things uncomfortable. Juan Mejia entered with runners on second and third with one out, got Jeremy Peña to fly out to right, intentionally walked Yordan Alvarez to load the bases, and induced a force out from Jose Altuve to end the threat. He came back out for the ninth and retired the side in order to earn his first save of the season. “Calm, cool, collected – just like he always is,” Schaeffer said. “Pounding the strike zone. His stuff is nasty, and he’s got a low heartbeat. It’s a good combo.”

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Rumfield’s triple was his first in the major leagues, and he has now reached safely in all nine of his career starts. Johnston’s home run was his second of the season. The Rockies went 6-for-12 with runners in scoring position. The offensive approach that Schaeffer and hitting coach Brett Pill have been demanding since day one showed up in the fifth inning in spectacular fashion – and for one night at least, Coors Field felt like a home-field advantage again.

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Colorado improves to 4-6. There is a long way to go, but back-to-back wins are a good place to start.