Photo via @Rockies/Instagram
Eli Whitney | July 31, 2026
Coors Field gave Tomoyuki Sugano a standing ovation Friday night as he walked off the mound in the seventh inning. Given where the calendar sits, it may have been a goodbye.
The 36-year-old right-hander, one of the Rockies’ most discussed names on the market with the trade deadline mere days away, turned in his sharpest work of the season in a 3-1 Rockies win over the Kansas City Royals — 6.2 innings, one run, no walks, and just 83 pitches. It was his seventh straight winning decision, making him the eighth Rockies ever to win seven consecutive decisions in a season and the first since Kyle Freeland in 2018.
Sugano didn’t sidestep the moment, but he didn’t dwell on it either.
“It’s a special moment for me in the given circumstances, and I feel really happy that I came to the Colorado Rockies,” he said through his interpreter, Yuto Sakurai, in response to the ovation.
As for whether he’ll be here next week, he’s made peace with not knowing.
“It’s not something that I can control. So I just try my best to meet each and every day, see what I can do on a daily basis.”
The splitter was again the difference, a pitch he’s spent the season learning to shape at altitude.
“It’s getting better each and every outing. I feel more confident about it,” Sugano said, adding that he leaned on it heavily the second time through the order. “I was able to pound the strike zone with the splitter. It gets swing-and-misses. Goody saw some things that maybe I didn’t see, and he called a good game.”
In terms of his season-long success, he deflected credit toward the staff: “A lot of support all around, starting with [Warren] Schaeffer and the pitching coach. It’s not just me — it’s a combined effort.”
Manager Warren Schaeffer saw the same veteran instincts he’s watched all year.
“Fastball command, the split was really good, the ability to keep the other team off balance,” Schaeffer said. “The ability to make an in-game adjustment when they start sitting soft and then go to the heater late. He’s been doing it for a long time, and it shows up pretty much every time he goes out there.”
The only blemish was a solo homer by Carter Jensen in the sixth.
The night’s other story was a return. Brenton Doyle started in center field for the first time since May 19, reinstated from the injured list after oblique and groin injuries cost him more than two months. He made it count with a two-out RBI double in the fourth.
“It felt really good to get a double my first game back with an RBI in a pretty close game,” Doyle said. “Pretty confidence-building.”
He called the layoff the longest of his career.
“The emotions are all over the place a little bit, but overall just really excited and motivated,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming, and we had a really good crowd tonight. To get a win and hear them cheer us on, it’s great.”
Doyle also nearly made a signature play on a second-inning line drive, diving and coming up just short.
“That’s just part of my game — always trying to be as aggressive as I can. Slipped a little bit, but I’m not going to blame it on that.”
Schaeffer was glad to have him back in the mix.
“It’s great to see BD back out there. I know the fans love it,” he said. “He had a triple that Isaac hit — I thought that was going to be a classic BD play. Other than that, he was great.”
Colorado scratched out just enough against Michael Wacha, who struck out seven over six innings in his first career quality start at Coors. TJ Rumfield singled home Mickey Moniak in the first, and the fourth produced two more on a Michael Massey throwing error and Doyle’s double. The bullpen finished it in pieces — Antonio Senzatela, Brennan Bernardino, and Jordan Romano combining for 2.1 scoreless — with Bernardino extending his streak to 22 consecutive games without an earned run, the longest by a Rockies reliever since Adam Ottavino‘s franchise-record run in 2014.
The win was Colorado’s 43rd, matching last season’s franchise-worst total with nearly two months still to play. Whether Sugano is around for the rest of it is, as he said, out of his hands.
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