The Colorado Rockies got a jolt from Hunter Goodman on Friday night, as he overcame a mini-slump and showed some of the form that made him an All-Star and Silver Slugger last season.
After going 2-for-25 with 11 strikeouts in his previous six games, Goodman went 4-for-5 with a two-run homer in Colorado’s 9-7 win in 11 innings over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday.
Goodman will look to continue his recent good fortune on Saturday evening when the visiting Rockies vie for a series win over the Phillies in the teams’ three-game set.
Goodman’s homer helped the Rockies to a five-run fourth inning on Friday. He has gone deep 10 times this season, joining former Phillie Mickey Moniak (11) as the lone players on the team in double figures in home runs.
Long balls also were a trademark of Goodman’s breakout 2025 campaign, when he became the first Rockies player to eclipse 30 in a single season since Nolan Arenado, Charlie Blackmon and Trevor Story did it in 2019. Goodman finished with 31, along with 91 RBIs.
Colorado manager Warren Schaeffer praised his starting catcher’s turnaround performance on Friday, saying, “If he doesn’t have a good homestand, you can’t keep a good man down long.
“… Really nice job with two strikes, good job against the breaking ball. It was really fun to watch him play.”
Left-hander Kyle Freeland (1-3, 5.04 ERA) will start for Colorado on Saturday. Freeland worked through 4 1/3 innings in his last start, giving up six runs on eight hits and taking the loss as the Rockies fell 11-6 to Atlanta on Sunday.
Freeland, 32, is 2-4 with a 3.38 ERA in 10 career appearances (all starts) against Philadelphia. His turn in the rotation did not come up when these teams faced off in Denver in April.
Friday, meanwhile, was a milestone night for Phillies rookie outfielder Justin Crawford, who hit his first career home run.
Crawford went 3-for-4, but he’ll remember one of those hits more than the rest after he took Jimmy Herget deep to tie the game in the eighth inning.
Philadelphia interim manager Don Mattingly spoke about Crawford’s budding power after the game.
“We’ve been working on helping him slowly learn to pull the ball better — we’re seeing some of that — so good for him to get the ball in the air there and drive it out of the ballpark,” Mattingly said. “It’s something that we think is going to grow over time with him.”
Philadelphia will turn to right-hander Aaron Nola (2-3, 5.06 ERA) on Saturday as it looks to avoid its first series loss under Mattingly. The team has won eight of 11 games since he replaced Rob Thomson after a disappointing 9-19 start to the season.
Nola showed signs of solving some of his early season struggles with his last start. He threw six shutout innings, struck out five and got the win as the Phillies held on for a 1-0 victory at Miami on Monday.
Nola has had a lot of success against the Rockies, going 5-2 with a 3.17 ERA in 12 starts against them. The 32-year-old has spent his entire career in Philadelphia, debuting just a year after the team selected him with the 11th overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft.
–Field Level Media
