Austin Gomber has quietly become the Rockies’ stopper.
With the rest of Colorado’s projected rotation on the injured list, Gomber delivered big-time in Colorado’s 7-2 victory over the Yankees Friday night. He mostly shut down the New Yorkers for six innings and quieted their fans, who made up the bulk of the sellout crowd of 47,865 at Coors Field.
“He had his four-pitch mix working tonight,” manager Bud Black said. “The change was good, a couple of good sliders, he mixed in some curveballs. He pitched great. He was outstanding.”
What’s more, Gomber is pitching with some swagger.
“Right now, I have a lot more confidence,” he said. “It’s one thing to kind of fake the confidence. When things aren’t going well, you try to tell yourself positive thoughts.
“But when you see success and you have good games and when you start stacking them and have a couple of good ones in a row, and you give up a (bloop) double to start the sixth, and it’s just like, ‘OK, next guy up.’ There are no negative thoughts like, ‘This is going to go bad.’ I’m in a place where I trust what I’m doing.”
And it was the Rox, not the guys from the Bronx, who hit the big bombs. Randal Grichuk led off the fourth with a solo homer, Kris Bryant hit a two-run homer in the seventh and rookie Nolan Jones launched a two-out, 469-foot solo blast in the eighth.
“It was a slider, mistake pitch,” said Bryant, who hit his seventh homer of the season, this one coming off reliever Michael King. “You want insurance runs right there. It was an all-around good game and a good way to start the second half.”
Grichuk left the game after the top of the sixth with what Black called a minor groin pull.
The Rockies were 3-7 in their last 10 games coming into the series, including a 1-4 road trip before the All-Star break. The Yankees, mired in fourth place in the American League East, are just six games above .500 with a 49-43 record.
The way the game began, it looked like it was going to be one of those games for a Rockies starter. Glyber Torres led off with a sharp single to right and Giancarlo Stanton ate up Gomber’s 0-2, 92.6 mph fastball, depositing into the left-center field bleachers, 455 feet from home plate.
“I made a mistake to Stanton,” Gomber said, noting that he tried to elevate the fastball but instead threw it too low and into Stanton’s power zone.
But those were the only runs Gomber gave up. He limited the Yankees to six hits, struck out two, and didn’t walk any. The lefty, whose season started off so rocky, has been excellent of late. He’s won each of his last four starts — the first time in his career he’s won four consecutive starts — posting a 3.00 ERA while striking out 12 and walking only two. The homer Gomber served up to Stanton was just his second allowed over that span.
Colorado roughed up Yankees lefty Carlos Rodon with a three-run second inning. Rodon, making his second start of the season, gave up a one-out walk to C.J. Cron, a single to Grichuk and an RBI single to Ezequiel Tovar. He also threw two wild pitches. The big blow of the inning was Brenton Doyle’s two-run double.
Rodon gave up four runs on six hits, including Grichuk’s homer, over five innings.
Grichuk now has four home runs in his last 14 games, after hitting one in the previous 41 games.
Colorado received stellar work from relievers Pierce Johnson, Daniel Bard and Justin Lawrence.
The game ended with Jones making a running, over-the-shoulder catch on Anthony Volpe’s line drive to left, with two men on base.
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