DENVER – Rockies rookie right-hander Gabriel Hughes picked up on an uncommon pattern during his pregame scouting meeting with pitching coach Alon Leichman to discuss the Nationals lineup he would face Wednesday afternoon.
“We’d just gone over everyone, and I asked him kind of offhandedly, ‘By the way, how many lefties is that?’” Hughes said. “He said, ‘That’s eight of nine, actually.’ and I said, ‘Oh, OK.’ Can’t say that happens super often, but we had a good game plan for them all.”
Hughes struck out five and yielded one run in five innings and had the Rockies squarely alive in the decider of the three-game series. But after he left, the game degenerated into a mistake-filled 8-0 loss at Coors Field.
Hughes debuted in relief on July 3 before moving into the starting rotation role planned for him when the Rockies selected him 10th overall in the 2022 MLB Draft. On Wednesday, he increased his strikeout total through his first three Major League starts to 18 – two off the club record for a pitcher through his first three starts in club history (Christian Friedrich in 2012).
The Rockies’ 11 losses in rubber games of series – tied with the Red Sox for second-most in the Majors this season, one behind the Phillies, according to the Elias Sports Bureau – are an issue as Colorado works toward improvement. Hughes’ undaunted performance since his callup is a step in that direction.
The bulk of the current rotation is mostly veterans in their contract years – Kyle Freeland, Tomoyuki Sugano, Michael Lorenzen and Jose Quintana (working back from an elbow injury). Some of that could change soon, with the Trade Deadline looming on Aug 3 at 4 p.m. MT.
But the Rockies have an eye on the future.
Righty Ryan Feltner has flashed elite stuff but dealt with injuries and inconsistency in his 82 games (81 starts) over six seasons. Third-year righty Tanner Gordon has bounced between the rotation and long relief. Sometime next year, righty Chase Dollander – the ninth overall pick in 2023 – will return from Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.
Hughes, 24, whose path to the Majors hit a speed bump with Tommy John surgery in 2023, is staking his claim to a key role.
“He pitched great, gave us a chance to win,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “Attacked with his heater – attack, attack, attack. Good body language. Good poise. Breaking ball for punchouts, good changeup. He did it all today.”
It helps that Hughes has shown such comfort pitching at altitude. In three games (two starts) at Coors Field, he has a 2.03 ERA and .250 batting average against. He held the Reds to two runs in 5 1/3 innings last Friday in his first home start.
Hughes had more preparation for pitching at altitude than most. He prepped at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian, Idaho, some 2,600 feet above sea level. And this year, many of his Triple-A starts were either at Albuquerque or some of the higher elevations in the Pacific Coast League.
Hughes’ start Wednesday exemplified why his pitch mix works in Denver, even against a lineup stacked with left-handed hitters. Despite some long at-bats, he never wavered. The only run came after Jorbit Vivas tripled to open the fifth and scored on a sacrifice fly.
“What worked today was fastball-curveball-changeup, and some of those pitches, even when we’re not at altitude, are moving 20-22 inches,” Hughes said. “My fastball plays like a cutter, and I can utilize that really well. My curveball plays off that – there’s a speed difference. But the biggest thing is just attacking the zone.”