Carrigg passes up chance at cycle for 2nd HR in 'at-bat of the year'

DENVER -- Rockies rookie Cole Carrigg's answer is always to go harder.

So Carrigg was happy to foul off pitch after pitch from the Padres’ Randy Vásquez, until he launched his second home run of the night on the 13th pitch of the at-bat -- a three-run shot in a 9-3 victory that ended the Rockies’ losing streak at eight games and the Padres’ winning run at eight.

Carrigg homered in the third off starter Walker Buehler. When he faced Vásquez in the sixth, he needed a triple for a cycle.

But when the time came, Carrigg went the extra mile -- or the extra 90 feet … or the extra 415 feet of home-run distance.

“He was throwing some good pitches -- inside cutters, fastballs, everything in, in,” Carrigg said. “I fouled them off, doing the best I could to get the bat head out, hoping at some point he would make a mistake and leave something a little more out and over. It took a while, but he left one a little up and down the middle.”

The first multihomer game of Carrigg’s 82-game Major League career came hours after he noted unapologetically that he can’t dial it down. The Rockies have issued warnings -- at times gently, at times not -- that his intensity could work against him during a long season. His 139 games -- 143 including the four he played with Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic -- easily outstrip the 123 he played last year at Double-A Hartford.

The switch-hitting Carrigg had homered Monday night in the Rockies’ 8-7 loss, then singled, homered and doubled off Buehler in his first three at-bats Tuesday. But that was on the heels of a 3-for-22 (.136) road trip during which the Rockies went 0-6 against the Yankees and Tigers.

Carrigg certainly didn’t take the approach that everything was OK.

“I’ve always expected the most out of myself -- always been hard on myself to be better,” Carrigg said. “You know what? This might not be the best thing that you can do, but when I’m not going well, I like to get in the cage and work it out.

“I think you will get rewarded for hard work. If I’m working my butt off trying to figure it out, I know in the long run that’ll work. I don’t love hearing, ‘You’re fine. You have your swing. Don’t swing so much.’ No. I’m going to bust my butt to figure it out, because I want to do everything that I can do and not have any … ‘I should have done more.’”​

Maybe Carrigg will find balance.

Someday.

“It’s something to learn,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve crossed that line yet. We’ll see when I get there. For me right now, I’m going to work stuff out how I do it, and that hasn’t failed me yet in my baseball career.”

The fatiguing nature of playing this deep into a Major League season for the first time is real.

The Minor League season is lengthy, and there are playoffs -- Carrigg was on the Northwest League champion Spokane team in 2024. Triple-A has extended its season, to give the Major League clubs players if they are needed near the end. That the schedule of games includes every day but Monday -- with that being a travel day -- taxes players used to college or high school schedules.

But the MLB schedule often requires lengthy stretches without a day off. Travel can be odd. After the last game in New York -- a night contest -- a traffic jam delayed the flight to Detroit. The Rockies arrived at their hotel around 3 a.m. on Friday.

Carrigg said that although to his surprise he has maintained his playing weight of around 210 pounds, he will work to add strength during the offseason. He concedes that the non-physical aspects are testing him.

“In the Minors, you may play bad or whatever, but you’re probably not getting sent down,” Carrigg said. “I don’t think I’m ever gonna get sent down -- I hope that’s not the case -- but it’s a thought that creeps into guys’ heads. When you go through a bad stretch you want to be better so much because you want to stick.”

Carrigg has remained strong, however. And at-bats like his second homer can cement him in the lineup.

The only other times a Rockies hitter has homered on the 13th pitch of an at-bat or later were achieved by Hall of Famer Todd Helton on May 13, 2000, and May 6, 2009. Several of Carrigg's swings just missed going into the right-field corner for potentially a cycle-producing triple, but he homered on the pitch he was seeking.

“That was the at-bat of the year. He hit I don't know how many foul balls hard, smoked them,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “Then, a huge, huge homer, at exactly the right time.”