Goodman stacking up clutch moments in second straight All-Star season

Even Hunter Goodman wasn’t sure.

In the bottom of the ninth at Coors Field with the Rockies trailing by three runs on May 29, Goodman crushed a slider from the Giants’ Caleb Kilian and waited for the answer -- the ball landing on the "Hit the Mitt for Charity" target beyond the left-field wall.

Talk about a blast with lasting influence. In the truly important grand scheme, it triggered a $5,000 charity donation from UCHealth to the Colorado Rockies Foundation for Athletics & Beyond, a Colorado nonprofit that uses sports to empower youth in many areas.

Goodman’s homer -- a three-run shot that tied the game and set the stage for Ezequiel Tovar’s walk-off homer – also was a signal that he is graduating from a guy with enough home run power to receive his second straight invitation to the All-Star Game -- he’ll play Tuesday night in Philadelphia -- to a guy with not only power, but true impact.

Goodman enters the Midsummer Classic with 27 home runs in his second season as the Rockies’ regular catcher. With health and consistency, he’ll easily surpass last year’s total of 31.

More importantly, he’s developing the knack for homering when the Rockies need it most.

The shot against the Giants marked the third time Goodman had homered to put the Rockies into a tie or the lead in roughly two months of baseball. In the 41 days after -- going to Friday's game in San Francisco -- he did so seven more times.

Many have come in early innings. But Goodman’s shot in the eighth inning against the Angels’ José Fermin on June 1 helped bring about a victory and his homer in the ninth against the Twins’ Anthony Banda on June 26 was part of a comeback that sent the game into extra innings.

Goodman isn’t hitting the long ball only when it matters most. He’s been doing it regularly. He started with nine home runs through April. Since dropping to four in May, when he batted .219, Goodman has 14 homers, including 13 in June.

“It’s nice when you’re getting good pitches to hit,” Goodman said. “That’s not always the case in this league. [Lately] I’ve gotten a lot of pitches to hit and I’ve been able to capitalize on that.”

Take Goodman’s timely power and add to it a feel for pitch-calling -- important, since the Rockies have largely abandoned the early-season strategy of signaling in pitches from the dugout -- and improved throwing to go along with his already respected ability to keep pitches in the dirt in front of him, and a winning player is emerging.

For his part, Goodman wants to earn that designation.

“With the catching stuff, there’s still stuff I need to do,” Goodman said. “The accuracy and throwing can be kind of iffy. We’re working on it and it’s gotten better over the last few weeks. And [offensively] there’s the pitch selection thing. Sometimes when I get into funks, I want to swing at everything.”

Goodman’s ability to catch up to the fastball forces the pitcher to take his chance with a breaking ball. Going into Friday, Goodman led the Majors this season with 12 home runs off breaking balls, and over the last two years his 25 homers on breaking balls were tied with the Rays’ Junior Caminero for the lead in the Majors.

“When he’s on, he’s hammering the fastball,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “He’s hammering mistake breaking balls, as well. When Goody is on the fastball, all things are on.”

Goodman is increasingly better at picking the right pitch to crush.

On May 23, the Rockies trailed the Diamondbacks, 5-4, with two out in the ninth when Goodman faced veteran closer Paul Sewald. With the count 2-0, Goodman fished at a slider that was low and in the opposite batter’s box. Sewald threw two more pitches just like that, and the game ended with a swinging strikeout.

But that was during Goodman’s self-described “funk.”

On the aforementioned homer off Banda, Goodman swung over two low pitches from the left-hander. He resisted chasing the next pitch, then destroyed Banda’s attempt to beat him with a four-seam fastball.

“It’s having a professional at-bat and not changing who he is in that situation,” said hitting coach Jordan Pacheco, who oversaw part of Goodman’s development in the Minors. “That comes with experience, being in that situation over and over again.

“You’re going to have to reel him back in sometimes, but that’s easier than trying to get a guy to go harder. He’s learning to handle those situations and coming through in more of them.”

That type of approach has made Goodman an All-Star and a player to count upon to win.

“If you have a good season, people are going to try to make adjustments,” Goodman said. “You’ve got to be able to adjust to that.

“To be able to do it twice in a row is pretty cool.”