{"id":693050,"date":"2026-05-07T23:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T23:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/693050\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T23:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T23:24:18","slug":"jake-mccarthys-grand-slam-lifts-rockies-to-victory-amid-sparse-attendance-at-coors-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/693050\/","title":{"rendered":"Jake McCarthy’s grand slam lifts Rockies to victory amid sparse attendance at Coors Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jake McCarthy walked halfway down the first base line, watching his moonshot as the ball flew.\n<\/p>\n

McCarthy turned on Craig Kimbrel\u2019s inside fastball in the eighth inning and pumped the pitch over the right field foul pole for a grand slam. It sailed 448 feet and was finally called fair by the first-base umpire \u2014 and upheld on review.\n<\/p>\n

That swing propelled the Rockies to a 6-2 win over the Mets on Thursday at Coors Field, avoiding a sweep and snapping a six-game losing streak. McCarthy had two of the biggest swings of the game,<\/a> as his RBI double in the sixth registered 19.9% Win Probability Added, then his granny in the eighth was 12.5% WPA. It was the Rockies\u2019 first grand slam this season.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked fair in the beginning, then it took a hard hook at the end, so I didn\u2019t know,\u201d McCarthy said of the grand slam. \u201cI was thinking, \u2018Just stay fair.\u2019 \u2026 (Kimbrel) has a good fastball, and I figured in that situation he\u2019s going to have to come over the heart of the plate with it. So I was hunting it, but I would\u2019ve also taken a sac fly or a seeing-eye single.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ColoradoColorado Rockies’ Jake McCarthy follows the flight of his grand slam off New York Mets relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel in the eighth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n

But even with McCarthy\u2019s offensive fireworks plus a strong pitching performance by Colorado, Coors Field attendance continues to lag through the Rockies\u2019 first 19 home games of 2026. Of those 19 games, eight of them have been the lowest home attendance marks in club history for a franchise coming off three consecutive 100-loss seasons, including a historic 119-defeat embarrassment in 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

Weather played a factor in some of those figures, including this week<\/a>. In Wednesday\u2019s 10-5 defeat to New York, the Rockies set a new low with 11,155 fans in a game whose start time was pushed back and that followed a snowstorm earlier in the day. Thursday\u2019s matinee, which was postponed from Tuesday, didn\u2019t draw much better with 13,378 fans.\n<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s clear the fan apathy generated by the past three forgettable seasons is also playing a role in the low turnouts.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to give fans something to root for, and I think we have to sort of earn their interest (back),\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we do by winning and playing a good brand of baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at the Rockies\u2019 struggling attendance in LoDo this season. Prior to 2026, the lowest home attendance in Colorado history was 18,119 on Sept. 22, 2005, against the Padres.\n<\/p>\n

April 22, 8-3 win vs Padres: 18,114
\nApril 7, 5-1 win vs Astros: 17,328
\nApril 6, 9-7 win vs Astros: 16,301
\nApril 21, 1-0 loss vs Padres: 15,672
\nMay 4, 4-2 loss vs Mets: 15,564
\nApril 8, 9-1 win vs Astros: 15,189
\nMay 7, 6-2 win vs Mets: 13,378
\nMay 6, 10-5 loss to Mets: 11,155<\/p>\n

Those who were in attendance on Thursday saw a strong performance by Jose Quintana, 14 years to the day of his MLB debut with the White Sox. Quintana threw 5 2\/3 innings of two-run ball. The damage came in the second inning, when New York scored via a sacrifice fly and RBI single.<\/p>\n

The Rockies\u2019 offense struggled to get in gear all afternoon until McCarthy\u2019s decisive swing. Colorado got a run from Willi Castro\u2019s RBI single in the fourth, then tied the game on McCarthy\u2019s RBI double in the sixth. But Colorado left runners on the corners in the fourth and stranded the bases loaded in the sixth after McCarthy\u2019s blooped double to center tied the game.\n<\/p>\n

McCarthy has been on a heater lately, hitting .409 over his last nine games, including his first homer of the year in Wednesday\u2019s defeat that preceded his grand slam on Thursday. Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer lauded McCarthy\u2019s ability to put the ball in play in a two-strike count in the sixth.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a huge point in the game,\u201d Schaeffer said. \u201cIt changes now you approach everything (from there on), and it changes how you use your bullpen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juan Mejia, Brennan Bernardino and Antonio Senzatela combined for a scoreless relief performance by the Rockies. Colorado now heads on a six-game road trip to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.\n<\/p>\n

Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jake McCarthy walked halfway down the first base line, watching his moonshot as the ball flew. McCarthy turned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2405],"tags":[3569,5,167,52,4316,1009,1040,1041,3917,131,853,1024,4,1027,168,185,9130],"class_list":{"0":"post-693050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-rockies","8":"tag-antonio-senzatela","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-colorado","11":"tag-colorado-rockies","12":"tag-coloradorockies","13":"tag-coors-field","14":"tag-denver","15":"tag-front-range","16":"tag-jake-mccarthy","17":"tag-jose-quintana","18":"tag-latest-headlines","19":"tag-lodo","20":"tag-mlb","21":"tag-more-rockies-news","22":"tag-rockies","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-warren-schaeffer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116535877747984649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}