DENVER — The Rockies staged a mile-high comeback Friday night, one of their best in franchise history, battling back from a 9-0 deficit in the first frame to walk off the Pirates, 17-16, on a Brenton Doyle two-run homer.
“That’s got to be the most incredible game I’ve ever been involved in, hands down, with all the stuff that went into that, down 9-0 in the first inning without us even picking up a bat,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. “Then crawling our way back into the game, grabbing momentum in the middle part of the game and losing it inning after inning because of walks.
“And then Dugan Darnell coming in, and his story, in the eighth inning, throwing up a zero, in the ninth inning throwing up a zero and getting a win and coming back and winning like that. It was a really fabulous game.”
Darnell, 28, earned the win in his Major League debut — four years after the Rockies signed him as an undrafted free agent on the strength of his two years of independent league baseball. He was the only Rockies pitcher to escape the game unscathed, pitching two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out one.
“I saw a guy that has taken such a long winding road to get here, a lot of failure in order to get here,” Schaeffer said of Darnell. “I saw him poised out there tonight. It’s an unbelievable story, and you don’t know what’s going through his head, but he looks good to me.”
Fresh off his debut, Darnell barely knew what was in his head himself.
“I was just trying to breathe,” Darnell said after a his teammates celebrated by dousing him with a Gatorade shower. “I can’t put it into words. I’ve never been a part of a game like that. It was a team effort all around, and I’m just thankful to be part of it.”
Antonio Senzatela put the Rockies in a deep hole in the first, allowing eight runs, all earned, on seven hits and two walks in two-thirds of an inning. As the Rockies chipped away, the Pirates kept answering back, and Colorado was down 16-10 when Darnell took the mound in the eighth.
“It was different than I expected,” he said. “I just tried to focus on executing pitches and getting quick outs, burying people if I could. We hung a couple zeros and held us in a spot for our team to win.”
The game-winning blast in the bottom of the ninth was Doyle’s first career walk-off homer. Over his last seven games, Doyle is slashing .500/.519/.654 (13-for-26) with a double, a homer and three RBIs.
“Getting down nine in the first is tough to come back from,” Doyle said. “But we kept the energy high. We kept fighting, and, oh my God, what a game!”
Doyle offered his insight into the secret ingredient that kept the Rockies’ fight alive.
“It’s just having the right guys in the clubhouse,” Doyle said. “You have a lot of guys that got a lot of fight in them, and it showed tonight.”
Ezequiel Tovar, who turned 24 on Friday, tied a Major League record with four doubles and became the first player to record the feat on his birthday. The Rockies got multi-hit efforts from Doyle (4-for-5), Hunter Goodman (2-for-5), Warming Bernabel (4-for-6), Thairo Estrada (2-for-6), and Mickey Moniak (2-for-5).
“He’s the engine that makes us go, on both sides of the ball, and he showed it tonight,” Schaeffer said of Tovar.
It’s been 19 years since a team allowed nine or more runs in the first inning and still won the game — last achieved by Cleveland in a 15-13 win over the Royals on Aug. 23, 2006.
The other teams to accomplish the feat include the Phillies on June 8, 1989, and also on Sept. 30, 1913, the Reds on May 17, 1896, and the Cleveland Blues on June 21, 1884.
It marked the third time in franchise history that the Rockies erased a nine-run deficit to win the game, per Elias, including Aug. 25, 2010 vs. Atlanta (won 12-10 after being down nine) and July 4, 2008 vs. Florida (won 18-17 after trailing by nine). It was just their second walk-off win of the season (also: June 12 vs. San Francisco), and they scored a season-high 17 runs. It was the second time in franchise history that the Rockies won a game in which they gave up 16 or more runs (also July 4, 2008 vs. Florida).
With the win, the Rockies improved to 7-6 since the All-Star break.
