Rockies overcome Pirates' 9-run 1st inning, cap comeback with Brenton Doyle's walk-off homer

When the Pittsburgh Pirates turned the thin air at Coors Field into rarefied air with a 10-hit, nine-run first inning, it looked like they were headed for a runaway victory against the worst team in baseball.

Instead, the Colorado Rockies staged an incredible comeback.

Brenton Doyle hit a two-run, walk-off home run to finish off a five-run ninth inning in dramatic fashion and boost the Rockies to a 17-16 comeback win Friday night in the highest-scoring game of the season.

Blowing a nine-run lead was a tough loss to swallow for the Pirates.

“Definitely is,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “Coming into Coors, you know you’ve just got to keep scoring because you never have enough here. The way guys hit and the ball travels, you’ve got to keep putting up runs.”

Where the Pirates (47-63) set season highs in runs and matched their best with 18 hits, the Rockies countered with 22 hits to snap their five-game winning streak.

The ninth-inning meltdown came a day after the Pirates traded two-time All-Star closer David Bednar to the New York Yankees for three prospects. Hunter Goodman started the rally with a solo homer off Dennis Santana, who then walked Jordan Beck and gave up an RBI triple to Warming Bernabel. Thairo Estrada put the tying run on base with a single, setting the stage for Doyle’s heroics.

“It looked like the slider wasn’t biting like normal,” Kelly said. “He left a couple up over the plate and they got a hold of them.”

The Rockies (29-80), who have MLB’s worst record, had 22 hits and finished much the same way the Pirates started the game. Oneil Cruz hit a grand slam and Andrew McCutchen a three-run homer on his way to 5 RBIs, as four Pirates players had at least three hits (Nick Gonzales went 4 for 6).

“The first inning, to put up nine and then continue that on. When they scored some runs, we scored some runs — which was really good,” Kelly said. “We did some really good things offensively. That’s the thing we’ve got to take into (Saturday), is how well we swung the bats and competed offensively.”

The Pirates pounced on the Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela for nine runs on 10 hits, including two home runs, in the first inning:

• It was their most hits in any inning of a game since getting 10 in the ninth inning of an 18-2 win at St. Louis on Aug. 6, 1959.

• Their first six batters got hits, matching a mark set in a 7-1 win over the Houston Astros on Aug. 23, 2016.

• The first seven batters reached safely to begin the game, the first time to do so without recording an out since a 14-10 win at Cincinnati on May 27, 2007.

• It was their most runs in any inning since scoring 10 in a 14-3 win at the Chicago Cubs on July, 2017.

Spencer Horwitz and McCutchen hit singles to left and Bryan Reynolds drove in Horwitz with another single for a 1-0 lead. Gonzales singled to right to load the bases, setting up Cruz for his second grand slam of the season. Cruz hit a 1-0 fastball foul, only to crush a curveball on the next pitch. He connected at a 114.7-mph exit velocity on a ball that traveled 451 feet to right field for his 18th home run and a 5-0 lead.

Tommy Pham followed with a single to center before Joey Bart ended the hit parade by drawing a walk. Jared Triolo grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa kept the inning alive with an RBI single to right to score Pham for a 6-0 lead.

When Horwitz drew a four-pitch walk, Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer, a Greensburg Central Catholic alum, pulled Senzatela and brought in lefty Carson Palmquist. But McCutchen smacked a 3-1 fastball to left field for a three-run homer for a 9-0 advantage. In the process, McCutchen passed Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski among the franchise all-time leaders with 855 RBIs.

It marked the first time the Pirates had ever hit a grand slam and a three-run home run in the first inning of a game, and Cruz and McCutchen became the first pair of Pirates to each hit a homer and have at least three RBIs in an inning since Michael Perez and Reynolds each hit three-run homers in the seventh inning of a 6-3 win over Cleveland on June 19, 2021.

After getting a single to left off the right-handed Senzatela, Reynolds singled to right off the left-handed Palmquist to become the first Pirates player to get hits from both sides of the plate in the same inning since Neil Walker – who was doing color analysis for SportsNet Pittsburgh’s telecast – did so in the ninth inning against the Rockies on Sept. 23, 2015. Gonzales got the 10th hit with another single before Cruz went down swinging to end the onslaught.

Cruz made a costly error when Goodman’s line drive glanced off his glove, as Goodman scored on a single by Beck to cut it to 9-1.

But Cruz made up for that mistake with a spectacular throw to start the second. Doyle drilled a 417-foot double off the left-center wall and tried to stretch it into a triple when Cruz fired a perfect throw to Triolo, who tagged out a sliding Doyle at third base.

The Rockies cut into their deficit in the third, when Ezequiel Tovar hit a leadoff double, Beck drew a full-count walk and Bernabel hit a three-run homer – his third in 20 at-bats – to make it 9-4.

The Pirates added three more runs in the fourth, when Horwitz grounded to first with the bases loaded to score Pham and McCutchen hit a two-run single to left to drive in Bart and Kiner-Falefa for a 12-4 lead.

Rookie right-hander Thomas Harrington, recalled Friday from Triple-A Indianapolis, replaced Andrew Heaney with one out in the fourth. Harrington walked Tyler Freeman, gave up an RBI double to Tovar and a run-scoring single to Goodman that cut it to 12-6.

“Pitching in Coors for the first time and trying to navigate his way can be challenging,” Kelly said. “It just seemed like the command was off. He wasn’t able to get it where he wanted to.”

The Pirates padded their lead in the fifth, when Cruz doubled and scored on Triolo’s single and Kiner-Falefa slapped a two-run double down the right field line for a 15-6 lead. But the Rockies answered with four runs in the bottom of the fifth, on three consecutive doubles by Mickey Moniak, Freeman and Tovar, to cut it to 15-10.

Bart was the only Pirate without a hit, though he drew four walks and got an RBI when he was hit by a pitch by Jimmy Herget with the bases loaded in the sixth to make it 16-10.

After Doyle singled, pinch hitter Yanquiel Fernandez smashed Yohan Ramirez’s 2-0 fastball 426 feet to right-center for his first career homer to cut the Rockies’ deficit to 16-12 in the eighth.

The Pirates went 10 for 21 with runners in scoring position and scored double-digit runs for the fifth time this season. They surpassed their previous season-best run total – a 12-1 win over the Mets on June 29 – and matched their 18 hits in a 9-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels on April 23. Only Baltimore’s 22-8 win over Tampa Bay on June 27 had more combined runs this season than the Pirates and Rockies’ 29.

But the Pirates didn’t score a run over their final three innings, and the Rockies finished with a flourish for an unbelievable ending.

“Man, just kind of a crazy game,” Heaney said. “It’s kind of hard to put that into words right now. I haven’t really processed this.”