Eli Whitney | June 11, 2026
Gatorade showers have become a fixture at Coors Field this week. Cole Carrigg earned the first one on Tuesday with a debut triple. Sterlin Thompson earned Wednesday’s with a pinch-hit walk-off single that scored Troy Johnston and sent the Rockies to a 3-2 win over the Cubs.
Thompson was the last person on the field in the ninth inning. Johnston led off with a walk against Daniel Palencia – a patient, grinding at-bat that set everything up. Brett Sullivan came off the bench and singled to right, sending Johnston to third. Then Thompson stepped in, pinch-hitting with the game on the line, and did what he has been doing since arriving in the big leagues – took his reads, waited for a fastball, and hit it where it was pitched.
“Not trying to do too much,” he said afterward, “not trying to swing too hard, just put it in play.”
The ball found a hole in right field. Johnston scored. Thompson’s teammates buried him in Gatorade.
“It’s something you dream of as a kid,” he said, still a little stunned. “Something I’ll probably always remember.”
It was the 23rd pinch-hit walk-off in franchise history, the first walk-off by a Rockies rookie since Chisthian Adames in 2016, and just the third time a Rockies rookie has delivered a pinch-hit walk-off in their debut season, joining Adam Melhuse in 2000 and Todd Helton in 1997.
The more remarkable storyline, though, was Michael Lorenzen. After a season that had been, at Coors Field specifically, a prolonged exercise in frustration – an 8.01 ERA entering the night, a pattern of soft contact finding holes and hard contact going in the wrong direction – Lorenzen went out Wednesday and looked like a different pitcher. Five innings. Two hits. One run. A season-high seven strikeouts. He threw from the windup for the first time in six or seven starts, added a small turn back into his delivery to create deception, and let his breaking ball and changeup work with the fastball rather than in spite of it.
“Just kind of throwing a little wrinkle with a little bit of a turn and presenting your pitches differently,” he said. “I think that helped.”
Warren Schaeffer had been saying for weeks that Lorenzen would figure it out. Wednesday felt like evidence that the faith was justified.
“He was really good from the start,” Schaeffer said. “Stuff down, breaking ball, changeup, filling up the zone. He was really good.”
There was one more subplot worth nothing. Jeff Criswell made his first major league appearance since September 28, 2024 – a span of over 15 months that included the entirety of 2025 spent recovering from Tommy John surgery. He entered in the eighth, worked a clean inning with a strikeout, allowed a hit and a walk but nothing more, and walked off the mound to a warm reception from the Coors Field crowd.
“It’s been a long time,” he said afterward. “Approaching 15 months. It’s definitely a great feeling to be back out there.”
Schaeffer didn’t dress it up.
“You go through what he went through,” the manager said, “and you’re by yourself a lot, you’re rehabbing where people aren’t playing baseball, away from all your friends. It’s a tough go. Good to see him back out there.”
The eighth inning had set it all up. Edouard Julien singled off the bench, and TJ Rumfield – who had been largely quiet offensively – drove a two-run homer to right to give Colorado a 2-1 lead. It was his eighth home run of the season and his first career go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later. Then Ian Happ tied it in the ninth with a solo shot off Antonio Senzatela, forcing the bottom of the inning that Thompson would end. Senzatela took the win regardless, moving to 6-0 on the season with a 2.11 ERA. He remains the most reliable arm in this bullpen and perhaps the most reliable player on the roster.
The Rockies have now won two straight, clinched their first series win against the Cubs since September 2024, and moved to 26-42. They’ll look to finish off the sweep on Thursday.
Leave a Reply