Hunter Goodman went deep three times Sunday to not only break out of a mini-homer slump but break into an exclusive Colorado Rockies club in which he’s now the founder.
The All-Star catcher became the lone player in franchise history to turn in a pair of three-homer games in the same season. Hall of Famers Todd Helton and Larry Walker never accomplished this particular feat. Neither did any of the famed “Blake Street Bombers.”
“Definitely cool knowing all the guys, the great players that have played here, the Hall of Famers that have played here,” Goodman said after the Rockies lost 9-6 to the Cincinnati Reds to drop two of three in the series. “It’s a pretty cool accomplishment.”
Goodman’s big day included two homers off Hunter Greene — a solo shot in the first and a two-run liner in the sixth — along with another two-run shot off reliever Sam Moll in the eighth. Those were homers No. 28, 29 and 30 of the season for Goodman.
This after not going deep since July 1. This after not being picked for the Home Run Derby. This after a day off from the hitting. Goodman wasn’t in the lineup Saturday and decided to not swing a bat in an effort to rest up.
“I feel like some of those off days you just take the full day and kind of just reset a little bit,” explained Goodman, who also had a three-homer game at Minnesota on June 27. “It’s not always the swing. It’s not always different stuff like that. Sometimes you’ve just got to keep going.”
And going and going and going — his three homers were a combined estimated total distance of 1,302 feet.
Turns out, it was just a good day to be a catcher in this game. Goodman’s counterpart, Tyler Stephenson, had two of Cincinnati’s four homers.
Give some credit to a hot summer day and this being Coors Field.
“The ball ball tends to fly on those days,” Goodman said. “And then I got some good pitches to hit.”
More specifically, a slider and fastball (98.6 mph) from Greene and a sinker from Moll.
Goodman became the fourth player in franchise history with at least a pair of three-homer games in their careers, joining the company of Walker, Helton and Carlos González. His just so happened to occur all in the span of a few weeks.
Here’s more history for Goodman: He’s the fourth-fastest Rockies player to reach 30 homers in a season (101 team games). The only ones ahead of him are Vinny Castilla (97 in 1998), Andrés Galarraga (99 in 1994) and Walker (100 in 1999), according to Rockies research.
“He looks dangerous. He just looks in sync,” manager Warren Schaeffer said of Goodman. “He was really good. You can see the confidence kind of seep out.”
Reporting by the Associated Press.