DENVER – For the last two games, baseballs have painfully found their way to the right hand of Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman.
A night after taking a pitch off his hand against the Astros, but emerging unscathed, Goodman had to leave Thursday night’s 7-3, 12-inning loss to the Padres after sustaining a right middle finger laceration. It was the result of a 95 mph fastball from starting pitcher Randy Vásquez during the sixth inning.
Goodman left the game, and the bloody finger was repaired with adhesive. X-rays did not reveal a break, nor the need for stitches.
“It’s frustrating for sure, but it’s the game of baseball,” Goodman said. “I signed up for it.”
“I think he’ll be OK – the X-rays were negative, so it’ll be day to day,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “We’ll see how he shows up tomorrow.”
But like most in the clubhouse, Goodman was more encouraged than frustrated from the loss, which ended on Xander Bogaerts' one-out grand slam off Valenti Bellozo after the Rockies intentionally walked the bases loaded, hoping for a double-play grounder. The swing ended the Rockies’ win streak at four games – their longest since Aug. 15-18 of a 2024 season that saw them go 43-119.
A Rockies bullpen that entered with a 2.89 ERA (eighth in the Majors) and one of the best strike-zone performances in the Majors carried the night after opener Jimmy Herget’s scoreless first inning.
Starter-in-training Chase Dollander held the Padres to one run (matched in the third by Brenton Doyle’s first home run of the season) in 4 1/3 innings. Jaden Hill entered after errors on second baseman Edouard Julien and shortstop Ezequiel Tovar put two on base with one out in the sixth, and struck out Gavin Sheets and Nick Castellanos. Juan Mejia snuffed out an eighth-inning threat, in part by picking off Fernando Tatis Jr. at second, and Victor Vodnik for two innings and Brennan Bernardino for one kept the game going in extras.
“We want to pick each other up – that’s our job, go out and compete, whatever the circumstance,” Hill said.
It was a personally annoying night for Goodman. He was hit in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s 9-1 victory over the Astros by a Christian Roa pitch. Before Thursday night and the Vásquez pitch that forced him out after an 0-for-2 beginning, Goodman had hits in eight of his first 11 games and reached safely in nine games. Wednesday’s game saw him hit his second homer of the season.
“It didn’t turn out the way we wanted, but I thought everybody went out there and battled tonight,” Goodman said.