Photo via @Rockies/X
Eli Whitney | August 4, 2026
Mickey Moniak‘s day began with a contract extension and peaked with a three-run game-tying homer. It ended, like too many nights this season, with a lead that didn’t survive the ninth.
Colorado carried a 7-5 advantage into the final inning Tuesday and lost 9-7 to the Tampa Bay Rays in 11 innings, blowing a lead after eight for the sixth time this year — tied for the third-most in the majors — and falling to 2-5 in extra innings.
The Rockies announced before the game that Moniak, one of several names that had circulated ahead of Monday’s deadline, had agreed to a two-year extension covering 2027 and 2028.
“Having Mickey be extended is music to my ears. Absolutely love it.” Warren Schaeffer said. “He believes that we are on the right track and that we’re going to turn this thing around quick, and he wants to be a part of it. That is worth so much.”
Moniak answered with his 19th home run, a three-run shot in the third inning that keyed a four-run inning after Tampa Bay had put up five.
That five-spot came on Liam Hicks‘ grand slam off Gabriel Hughes — Hicks’ first hit as a Ray, and the first grand slam of his career. Hughes labored through 33 pitches in the third, then retired the side in order in the fourth, and struck out the side in the fifth. He finished with a career-high matching seven strikeouts over 5.1 innings, five of those punch-outs coming on his curveball.
Hughes rejected the idea that he’d fixed something.
“I don’t think there was an adjustment,” he said. “I had a good approach the first two innings, I had a good approach in the fourth and the fifth, and I just got away from it in the third. I got away from what was working, and I got back to it.”
The curveball, he said, took over by consensus: “We come out, got a couple strikeouts on it, so we keep saying, hey, let’s roll with it. To Goody’s credit, he kept calling it, and it kept working. It was kind of a self-reinforcing loop.”
Schaeffer saw the same poise he’s previously praised from the rookie.
“One rough inning with a couple walks mixed in, maybe not around the zone enough — but he held it together, came back, showed confidence,” he said. “It’s impressive, the in-game adjustments he can make after something goes bad.”
Willi Castro pushed Colorado ahead in the fourth with a two-run homer, his 13th of the year and a new career high. Jake McCarthy had three hits, and Jordan Beck tripled and scored in his return to the lineup.
Then the bullpen, so good through the middle innings, ran out of room. Jordan Romano couldn’t hold the two-run lead in the ninth, walking Taylor Walls and surrendering a two-run single to Jonathon Aranda that tied it. Two innings later, Nick Frasso — making his major league debut in the 11th with a runner already on second — uncorked a wild pitch that scored the go-ahead run and gave up an RBI single to Junior Caminero.
Schaeffer went out of his way to defend the rookie.
“That’s probably the most difficult position you can be in in your major league debut,” he said. “I tried to avoid it as long as I could. I thought he handled it like a man, stood up tall and threw strikes. Good for him for getting that first one out of the way.”
Frasso came to Colorado in the Seth Halvorsen trade last month.
There were smaller wins. Parker Mushinski, whose contract was selected from Triple-A Albuquerque this morning, threw a scoreless seventh in his Rockies debut and gave Schaeffer a second left-hander to pair with Brennan Bernardino. Jimmy Herget worked around the automatic runner for a scoreless 10th with two strikeouts, ending a rough stretch.
“That’s the Jimmy we know,” Schaeffer said. “He’s been going through it the past couple weeks. For him to put up a zero there — I was very happy for him.”
Colorado fell to 45-69. It was the club’s 16th last-at-bat loss of the season.
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