Eli Whitney | May 16, 2026
Thursday night at Coors Field was supposed to be a celebration. Sterlin Thompson, born in Longmont, Colorado, was called up from Triple-A Albuquerque to make his major league debut – the first Colorado-born position player to debut with the Rockies. Instead, the evening belonged entirely to the Arizona Diamondbacks, who sent ten batters to the plate in the first inning, scored six runs before Kyle Freeland could record three outs, and cruised to a 9-1 victory behind Merrill Kelly’s first complete game of his career. Colorado falls to 17-28.
The first inning was over before it started. Corbin Carroll singled, stole third on a challenged call that was overturned, and scored on an Ildemaro Vargas single. Gabriel Moreno then singled home two more. José Fernández doubled in another. Ryan Waldschmidt singled home two to make it 6-0. Six runs, five hits, two walks, two stolen bases, and a Freeland who had nothing to offer in terms of escape routes.
“Four of the first six hits were very low exit velocity, Coors Field hits if you want to call them that,” Freeland said after the game. “But they’re still hits, and we get them on this side too. It’s just unfortunate that they compiled as a team were able to keep their foot on the pedal and score six in the first and pretty much put us away.”
He lasted just 3.2 innings, allowing seven earned runs on eight hits and four walks – the most walks he’d allowed in a single outing since June 2023. It snapped a 70-game streak of three walks or fewer, the longest such streak in franchise history.
Warren Schaeffer was measured in his assessment. “He gave all he had today,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with his arm.”
Kelly was, on this night, everything that Freeland wasn’t. The Arizona right-hander threw a complete game on exactly 100 pitches, walking nobody and striking out three. His cutter and changeup generated soft contact all evening, and the Rockies never mounted anything that resembled a threat. “He lived on the edges,” Schaeffer said. “He knows how to pitch, and we fell into his trap today. Kelly’s seven straight quality starts at Coors Field are the most by any pitcher in the history of the ballpark.
Hunter Goodman provided the only moment worth remembering from a Colorado perspective, hitting his 11th home run of the season – a solo shot to left in the bottom of the first – to prevent a shutout and give the crowd something to acknowledge. It was a small consolation on a night when the Rockies went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left just three on base, largely because they never got runners on base to leave there.
The debut that had everyone’s attention came in the eighth inning when Thompson stepped in as a pinch hitter with the game well out of reach. He grounded out to first on the only pitch he saw. It wasn’t the moment that anyone had scripted, but it was a moment nonetheless.
Thompson had spoken pregame with a mix of wonder and calm that was striking for someone about to play in the big leagues for the first time. He was born in Longmont six months before his family moved away, grew up in Florida watching the Rockies on television, and wore a Colorado shirt to a Marlins game at age seven. “You only get on debut,” he said before the game. “Just trying to make the most of it.” Schaeffer acknowledged the unusual circumstances that the game provided. “I thought it was a good time to get him in there,” he said, “get his feet wet. You never know what’s going to happen. He got his first at-bat in the big leagues, and he’s played in the big leagues now. Good for him.”
The Diamondbacks improve to 21-22 and take the early series lead. Colorado has now lost seven of its last eight at home and has been held to two or fewer runs in four of its last five games. The second game of the series is Saturday afternoon. It will need to be a different one.
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