It was a weird game in Atlanta, and that might be putting it lightly. The Colorado Rockies scored before recording a hit and also struck out 16 times against the Atlanta Braves but bludgeoned them 10-1.
Duel of the No-Hitters
For the first five innings, Austin Gomber and Grant Holmes had dueling no-no’s. The Rockies scored first on a two-error play in the third. Ryan Ritter bunted and Holmes recorded one error trying to field it, allowing Ritter go to to second, and recorded a second error when he overthrew Matt Olson, allowing Ritter to head to third. Braxton Fulford then hit a sacrifice fly to score Ritter — the preview of the rest of the game for him — but the Rockies were still held hitless until the second out of the sixth inning.
Fulford then broke up the Braves’ no-hitter with one out in the sixth with a single up the middle.
On the Braves side, they broke up their no-hitter with two outs in the fifth when Michael Harris II softly hit a ball that barely stayed fair. Eli White then singled to record the second hit, but neither would come around to score.
Hey, batter batter!
In the seventh, Ryan McMahon recorded the Rockies’ second hit of the game with a 429-foot home run to end a streak of seven at-bats with a strikeout dating back to Friday night. Thairo Estrada struck out, but then Brenton Doyle walked to end the day for Holmes. Right-hander Enyel De Los Santos came in to relieve him, and immediately gave up a base hit to Orlando Arcia. Ritter singled to advance both baserunners, and then Fulford walked after an eight-pitch at-bat to score Doyle and put the Rockies up 3-1. Jordan Beck doubled to score two more, and De Los Santos’ day came to an end without recording a single out.
Right-hander José Ruiz came into relieve De Los Santos, and immediately battled Tyler Freeman. Freeman fought through a nine-pitch at-bat to single and score Fulford to make the lead 6-1 Rockies. To add to the weirdness, Freeman was able to goad Ruiz into a disengagement violation, where both he and Beck advanced. Beck, of course, was on third and scored another run. The six runs in the seventh inning were the most scored in a single inning by the Rockies on the road since June 2, 2023 at Kauffman Stadium against the Kansas City Royals. It was also the first time they’d scored 9+ in the seventh inning or later since 2009 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Braxton Fulford Game
Braxton Fulford had a career game today, knocking in five of the Rockies’ 10 runs.
He, of course, knocked in the Rockies’ first run on a sacrifice fly in the third inning before they even recorded a hit. He walked with the bases loaded in the seventh to bring in Doyle, and then hit a 120-foot, barely-fair, three-run triple in the eighth inning to put the Rockies up 10-1.
In total, Fulford went 2-for-2 with five RBI, a run scored, a walk and a triple. He’s now batting .222/.250/.500 in seven games (five starts) this season.
Return of the Strikeouts
The Rockies seemed to be turning a corner on their strikeout-plagued early season woes, but the strikeout problem resurfaced today. They recorded 16 after recording 19 last night. Their 35 strikeouts are a new National League record of strikeouts in back-to-back nine-inning games in a season. Holmes struck out 15 guys, a career-high for him (he’d never struck out 10+ in a game) and it was also the most strikeouts recorded by any player in any game this season. And in the spirit of the weird game, the Rockies won 10-1.
Up Next
The Rockies will fly north to play another NL East team in the Washington Nationals. Recently-recalled Carson Palmquist (0-4, 7.77 ERA) will take on Nats’ right-hander Jake Irvin (5-3, 4.21 ERA). First pitch is at 4:45pm MT. See you then!
