​​Eli Whitney | May 16, 2026

Less than twenty-four hours after being routed by Merrill Kelly’s complete game, the Colorado Rockies came out swinging. They forced 31 pitches out of Eduardo Rodríguez in the first inning, built a 3-1 lead before the second inning was complete, and held on behind an ill Tomoyuki Sugano and a bullpen that has become one of the more reliable in the National League. Colorado beat Arizona 4-2 in front of 34,405 fans at Coors Field, evening the series and setting up Sunday’s rubber match.

​The first inning set the tone in the most direct way possible. Willi Castro singled. Brenton Doyle hit a ground-rule double. TJ Rumfield singled home Castro. Mickey Moniak then singled to center to score Doyle. Two runs, four hits, Rodriguez was already in trouble before he’d gotten comfortable. “We needed that,” Schaeffer said. “We’ve been talking about starting things early, and we did a nice job of that today.” Jake McCarthy added a third run in the second with an RBI single before Rodriguez settled in and held Colorado scoreless through the fifth. The fourth run came in the eighth on a Moniak hit by pitch with the bases loaded that scored Doyle, who had singled and moved up on a Brandyn Garcia wild pitch. Moniak finished with two RBI, bringing his total to 28 on the season, the most by any Rockie through 38 games since C.J. Cron in 2022.

​None of it would have mattered if Sugano hadn’t found a way to give the Rockies five innings. He was sick before the game – genuinely uncertain whether he could take the mound. “I felt like throwing up,” he said in the postgame. But once he got out there, he said, he didn’t want to make excuses. He leaned heavily on his sinker, which had been effective in his previous outing, and worked through traffic in multiple innings without breaking. The Diamondbacks stole home in the second – Lourdes Gurriel Jr. executing a double steal with José Fernández – to make it 2-1, and Corbin Carroll doubled home a run in the fifth to cut the lead to 3-2. But Sugano stranded runners in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, and departed having allowed two earned runs while throwing five innings for the fifth consecutive start. It was his 150th career win between the MLB and NPB. His teammates surprised him with a celebration in the clubhouse afterward.

​“I honestly wasn’t aware that my teammates knew about it,” he said. “So I was really happy about it.”

​Warren Schaeffer handed the game to his bullpen from there, and the bullpen handled it without drama. Juan Mejia worked 1.2 scoreless innings. Jaden Hill pitched 1.1 innings, navigating the Rockies out of a jam in the seventh. Then, Antonio Senzatela came on for the ninth and eventually ended things after a ten-pitch battle against Geraldo Perdomo that finished with a fly ball to end the game. It was his third save of the season, converting all three opportunities. “I was just going pitch by pitch,” he said. “He’s a good hitter. I just tried to win the game and beat him in that situation.” The Colorado bullpen has allowed two earned runs in 12.2 innings across its last three home games.

The rubber match is tomorrow. Colorado is 18-28 and has now played three straight series that have gone to a deciding game. Whether they can win this one will say something about where this club is actually at right now.