Forget the candles. Moniak finishes single shy of cycle in 5-RBI game on his birthday!
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PITTSBURGH -- Rockies outfielder Mickey Moniak celebrates his birthday in style.
Moniak turned 28 on Wednesday, and celebrated it with a three-run homer in the Rockies’ six-run fifth inning and a five-RBI game in a 10-4 win against the Pirates at PNC Park. The Rockies have a chance at a .500 road trip with a win on Thursday afternoon.
Moniak has played three times on his birthday. Twice he has gone deep. He did it on May 13, 2023 for the Angels against the Guardians. Last year, his birthday brought an 0-for-2 against the Rangers for the Rockies -- who picked him up just before Opening Day after the Angels released him.
This year, Moniak doesn’t need to blow out candles to have a big day.
Moniak entered Wednesday leading the National League in slugging percentage at .648, and ranked second in OPS, tied for fourth in home runs (Wednesday’s was his 12th), tied for sixth in extra-base hits and 10th in batting average.
The homer -- which marked the 25th time in Rockies history (since 1993) that a player has gone deep on his birthday -- was the culmination of production that showed no indication of coming.
Pirates starter Mitch Keller had not yielded a baserunner through the first four innings, and had a 3-0 lead. But TJ Rumfield’s single started a parade of five straight hits -- Rumfield’s, singles by Troy Johnston and Kyle Karros, an RBI double by Jake McCarthy and a game-tying RBI single by Ezequiel Tovar.
An unsuccessful Brett Sullivan squeeze bunt and an Edouard Julien soft liner merely set up Moniak for his blast to right field off Keller. Moniak added an eighth-inning leadoff double and he ended the game a single shy of the cycle after he hit a two-run triple in the ninth.
Todd Helton is the Rockies’ career leader in birthday homers with five, followed by Charlie Blackmon with three.