Photo via @Rockies/X
Eli Whitney | July 21, 2026
Hunter Goodman is not letting the second half slow him down. Two days after a three-homer game, the Rockies catcher launched a go-ahead solo shot into the left-center bleachers with two outs in the eighth inning Tuesday night, lifting Colorado to an 8-7 comeback win over the Washington Nationals at Coors Field.
It was his 31st home run of the season and his fourth in his last three games — and it turned a game the Rockies battled through most of the night into their 13th last-at-bat win of the year.
The blow was all the more impressive given how the at-bat before had gone. Goodman had come up with the bases loaded in the sixth and struck out, an at-bat that visibly frustrated him.
“I was pretty frustrated after it,” Goodman said, “but as the game goes on, we’re still in a big ballgame, and I was going to get another at-bat. You’ve got to get over it as quick as you can.”
When that next chance came, he stayed back on a breaking ball and muscled it out — nearly one-handed.
“I caught it out front, breaking ball, spun it well, so those tend to carry. Got just enough of it.”
Manager Warren Schaeffer has watched the poise grow all season.
“It’s about spending more time in the big leagues and knowing how pitchers are pitching you, slowing your heartbeat down,” Schaeffer said. “You want him up there in those big spots. He came through tonight in a big way. Sometimes all Goody needs is one hand, and it can go a long way.”
Goodman’s 31st homer tied his own record for home runs by a catcher in a season, and his 11 homers from the seventh inning on lead the majors.
Colorado needed the comeback because Michael Lorenzen never found his footing. The right-hander was tagged for six runs in 3.2 innings, undone by two two-run homers from CJ Abrams.
“I felt like my stuff was good — a couple mistakes that you hope don’t turn into home runs or extra-base hits, but they ended up being that,” Lorenzen said. “The curveball to García, that’s not a good pitch to him, and he hits a triple. Little mistakes like that could have been avoided, and against an offense like that here at Coors, that needs to get cleaned up.”
Abrams finished with two homers and four RBI. But the bullpen slammed the door.
Five relievers combined for 5.1 innings of one-run ball, with Brennan Bernardino stranding a key runner in the fourth, and Juan Mejia and Jordan Romano closing it out with a 1-2-3 eighth and ninth.
“Efficient and confident,” Schaeffer said. “Vic and Juan on a back-to-back, it’s impressive.”
Mejia picked up the win; Romano nailed down his seventh save, striking out two of Washington’s best in the ninth.
The offense chipped away all night.
Mickey Moniak gave the Rockies the lead with a solo homer in the sixth — his 16th of the year — and finished with two hits and two RBI. Jake McCarthy doubled and extended his on-base streak to 16 games, and Cole Carrigg added three hits. The lineup was relentless from top to bottom: seven of nine starters had a hit, four with multiple.
Schaeffer was quick to credit the defense, too, singling out a McCarthy sliding catch in the eighth and a double play that bailed out Victor Vodnik.
“We talk about flipping one-run losses into one-run wins, and it’s plays like that that do it,” Schaeffer said. “Hats off to the boys tonight.”
The win pulled Colorado within two of matching last year’s victory total — with a rubber match to come.
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