Kris Bryant hit one of Colorado’s three home runs and Austin Gomber won his fourth straight start as the Rockies beat the New York Yankees 7-2 on Friday.
In their first game since new hitting coach Sean Casey was hired, the Yankees got off to a fast start with a two-run home run by Giancarlo Stanton, but then fizzled out at offense-friendly Coors Field.
“I know there’s a lot of panic outside the clubhouse,” said Gleyber Torres, who singled before Stanton’s home run and had three hits. “We just try to play better baseball, little by little. The energy is good. We have to find a faster way to get better at the plate. Everything depends on us”.
Carlos Rodón allowed four runs in five innings in his second game of the season and New York couldn’t come back. The Yankees (49-43) are 14-18 since slugger Aaron Judge was injured June 3, hitting a major league-low .219. They have been held to two runs or fewer in 12 of those games.
New York is tied for last place in the AL East at this point in the season for the first time since August 23, 1992.
“I don’t care where we are,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Everything is in front of us. We don’t have to have an amazing race. We all know we have to play better than we’ve been playing. We have to generate more, it is as simple as that”.
Randal Grichuk and Nolan Jones also went safety for the National League’s worst Rockies. Gomber (8-7) pitched six innings and lowered his ERA from 6.30 to 6.19. Among 62 qualified pitchers, only Jordan Lyles is taller at 6.42.
Stanton followed Torres’ game-leading single with a 455-foot home run, but Gomber allowed just four more hits and didn’t allow a run in his last five innings.
Stanton has 11 home runs in 24 games in Colorado, including a 504-foot homer with Miami in August 2016 that is tied for the longest in Coors Field history.
Rodón (0-2) allowed four hits, struck out six and walked two. The lefty, who threw 88 pitches and hit 97 mph on his fastball, missed the first three months of the season with forearm and back injuries.
“It wasn’t good tonight, let’s put it that way,” Rodón said. “I felt pretty strong throughout the entire process.”
Brenton Doyle’s two-run, two-out double capped a three-run second inning against Rodon for a 3-2 lead. Ezequiel Tovar drove in Colorado’s first run with a single and leads rookie shortstops with 46 RBIs.
Grichuk homered in the fourth and Bryant hit a two-run homer off Michael King to take a 6-2 lead in the seventh. Jones hit a 469-foot home run in the eighth.
Gomber got out of trouble twice while tending thin leads. He has allowed 22 home runs, tied for the most in the majors.
“I have a lot more confidence,” Gomber said. “It’s one thing to try to feign confidence when things aren’t going well. When you see success, you don’t have to fake it. And when you keep stacking them… Now I’m at a point where I really trust what I’m doing.”
