Rockies nearly take down Yankees in series loss
Over Memorial Day weekend, the Colorado Rockies faced another tyrant in their path, dragging their feet into a series against the New York Yankees. The Yanks were able to complete the series comeback after getting shocked in game one, bringing the Rockies record to 9-44.
Besides the reason that it’s New York, one man was responsible for close to 43,000 fans packing Coors Field each of the three games. It was Aaron Judge’s first appearance at Coors, giving a debut for the league’s best power hitter to perform in the league’s most hitter-friendly ballpark.
Game One
With the Rockies coming off a four-game series and having played seven days in a row, the starting pitching rotation needed a rest day so the club turned to an emergency start from Tanner Gordon.
After giving up nine hits and four earned runs against the Detroit Tigers on May 8, Gordon secured his second career quality start on Friday, holding the Bronx Bombers to just two runs in the first six innings. He allowed a Paul Goldschmidt RBI triple in the first, then went three clean frames before Judge pieced together his first career home run at mile high in the fifth.
The Rockies took the lead later that inning off a two-run RBI double from Ryan McMahon to put them on top 3-2. McMahon’s had a turbulent season, going on a franchise-worst 0-for-35 streak in April, but has rebounded in May with a .994 OPS and nine extra base hits.
Colorado went into the bullpen innings with a one-run lead, and against all odds froze the score to hold on to the 3-2 victory. It was just the third series opener the Rockies have won all year, and they did it in front of 47,000 fans.
Game Two
New York retaliated in game two, scoring 10 runs in the fifth inning en route to a 13-1 win. It was the eighth time in 2025 that the Rockies gave up double-digit runs, the third most in the MLB.
Starter Kyle Freeland got the bad end of the stick, having to face a Yankees lineup that was due to explode after averaging just three runs in their last four games. He conceded eight runs – only four of them earned – across nine hits, coming an out shy of going through five innings.
An insane six New York batters had a multi-hit game, with three hits each for Cody Bellinger, Anthony Volpe and ex-Rockie DJ LeMahieu. Goldschmidt collected his 21st multi-hit game of the season, and Judge homered in back-to-back games for the fourth time this year.
Game Three
Sunday gave the Rockies’ their third chance this year for a series win in game three. They gave the nod to Antonio Senzatela, who went just 4.1 frames, giving up four runs. This noted the sixth time he’s failed at completing five innings of work in 2025.
Reliever Jake Bird came in and threw 14 pitches before a rainstorm forced a weather delay in the top of the fifth. New York led 4-2 at this point, and the 1 hour, 46 minute delay marked the end of the Yankees’ starter Will Warren’s day, who struck out seven Rockies.
Each team tagged on an additional run once play resumed, and Colorado trailed 5-3 headed into the bottom of the ninth inning. With the sun breaking onto Coors Field, Mickey Moniak hit a lead off homer to make it a one score game. Even after Adael Amador and Jordan Beck got ninth inning hits, Colorado couldn’t bring them home and painfully lost 5-4.
The L brought the Rockies to 9-44 and 0-17 in series. In their seven game homestead against Philadelphia and New York, they gave up 85 total hits and went 1-6 over the stretch.
“We start the game playing baseball in that first inning, starting out the game right,” Interim Manager Warren Schaeffer said after game three. “Then the middle innings once the pitcher adjusts to us … we need to start making the adjustments on top of that, to punch back.”
Colorado leaves for a nine-game road trip starting in historic Wrigley Field for a series against the Chicago Cubs.