Pardon the alliteration, but Rockies road rallies are really rare.
They bagged a big one Monday night, though, riding ninth-inning home runs by Hunter Goodman and Mickey Moniak to a 6-4 win over Washington at Nationals Park.
Goodman, Colorado’s leading All-Star candidate, led off the ninth with a blast off closer Kyle Finnegan. It was Goodman’s second homer of the game and team-high 13th of the season — 10 of them coming away from Coors Field. His homer tied the game.
Moniak’s two-run blast off Finnegan won it. Moniak, who has hit eight homers, drove in Sam Hilliard, who was pinch-running for Thairo Estrada after he reached on a one-out single.
“(Goodman) has been unbelievable,” Moniak told Rockies.TV in Washington, D.C. “He’s been on a heater ever since I was with the Angels in spring training and I think that every time we played the Rockies in spring training, he hit a homer.
“He’s been carrying us throughout the year, and, obviously, he’s found something that works for him and he’s sticking to it. He’s been huge for our team.”
The victory, locked down by hard-throwing right-hander Seth Halvorsen in another audition for the closer role, marked just the third time that the Rockies have won back-to-back games during this trying season. They beat the Braves, 10-1, in Atlanta on Sunday.
“We walked the leadoff guy, and that’s not good; we don’t want to do that,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer told reporters. “But Seth settled in and he got some good defense behind him, and he got the job done. Seth has closed before. He’s built for that, and we’ll look for that next time he gets out there.”
After walking Luis Garcia, Halvorsen induced a groundball double play out of Brady House and Riley Adams grounded out to first baseman Michael Toglia to end the game.
Despite the comeback victory, Colorado’s 57 losses in the first 72 games of the season are tied with the 1932 Boston Red Sox for the most in the modern era (since 1901). The Nationals lost their ninth straight, their longest losing skid since July 2022.
Rockies rookie left-handed starter Carson Palmquist cruised early, displaying the promise that makes him a likely cog in Colorado’s future rotation. But Palmquist hit a speed bump in the fourth inning and then suffered a blowout in the Nationals’ three-run, two-homer fifth inning.
Palmquist issued back-to-back walks in the fourth to C.J. Abrams and Andres Chaparro, and Amed Rosario’s sacrifice fly scored Abrams. Palmquist threw 39 pitches in the fourth, and that appeared to wear him out.
Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Carson Palmquist throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
In the fifth, Daylen Lile led off with a homer to the second deck in right field, Lile’s first big-league homer. A single by Alex Call, followed by a two-run homer by James Wood, put the Nationals up 4-3.
Palmquist, now 0-5 with a 7.76 ERA, pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on four hits. He struck out two and walked three.
Goodman put the Rockies on his back in the first inning, slugging a two-run, 393-foot blast to left-center off right-hander Jake Irving. Goodman leads all National League catchers in home runs, RBIs (43) and total bases (137). In June, he’s batting .364 (20 for 55) with six home runs, five doubles, three triples and 12 RBIs in 14 games.
“He’s a big piece to the puzzle (on the road),” Schaeffer said. “He’s been our best hitter, bar none.”
Colorado stretched its lead to 3-1 in the fifth, combining Moniak’s leadoff triple off the center-field wall with an RBI single by Toglia. Called up from Triple-A Albuquerque for Monday’s game after an 11-game tune-up stint in the minors, Toglia hit 1 for 4 with one strikeout.
In 11 games at Triple-A, Toglia slashed .273/.353/.568 with three home runs, four doubles and 16 RBIs. He told MLB.com before Monday’s game that he’s in a good place.
“If you get really good at what you’re good at, I think the strikeouts will go down,” said Toglia, who was leading the majors in Ks when he was demoted. “I’m not the kind of hitter where I focus on just putting the ball in play, not striking out. I’ve tried that before and that hasn’t worked.
“I have to stay aggressive, try to do damage. When that is my mentality, that’s when I’m the best version of me.”
Tuesday’s pitching matchup
Rockies RHP Antonio Senzatela (1-10, 7.23 ERA) at Nationals’ RHP Michael Soroka (3-4, 5.14)
4:45 p.m. Tuesday, Nationals Park
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: 850 AM, 94.1 FM
Trending: Senzatela desperately needs a strong start. The veteran right-hander allowed no earned runs in his first two starts, but in his last 12 appearances (11 starts) since, he has an 8.47 ERA. He allowed seven runs on nine hits over four innings last Thursday in the Rockies’ 8-7 win over the Giants. His 10 losses were the most in the majors entering Monday. The right-hander is getting hit hard and on a regular basis. Opponents are batting .373 against him, and he’s served up 12 home runs. Senzatela is 1-1 with a 4.42 ERA in five career appearances (three starts) vs. Washington. Tuesday will mark his first career start at Nationals Park.
Pitching probables
Wednesday: RHP German Marquez (2-8, 6.62) at Nationals LHP Mitchell Parker (4-7, 4.84), 4:45 p.m.
Thursday: Rockies RHP Chase Dollander (2-7, 6.57) at Nationals RHP Trevor Williams (3-8, 5.71), 11:15 a.m.
— Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
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Originally Published: June 16, 2025 at 7:49 PM MDT