DENVER — Last night, the Colorado Rockies defeated the Atlanta Braves 7-3. Getting nearly 1,000 feet of home run distance — and more importantly, a total of four runs — off the bats of Carlos Gonzalez and Mark Reynolds.
Gonzalez’ blast broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning, emphatically putting the Rockies on top 3-0 on one of the most impressive home runs he has ever hit. And that, my friends, is saying something.
“That was as loud as it gets,” CarGo said post-game. “That was a sweet sound.”
The ball travelled an estimated 454 feet and made almost as loud a noise when it struck the bullpen wall in right-center as it did when it left the bat. Until that moment, Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz had been nearly untouchable.
“[He has] the plus fastball and good breaking ball,” Gonzalez noted. “And I saw a lot of pitches during the first two at-bats, so I was ready for one mistake. I knew that I was going to get one pitch the whole night and that was it, so I’m glad I didn’t miss it. And we didn’t waste the great outing from Bettis.”
And that is the most important part, CarGo says, despite how good it can feel to hit a ball at an exit velocity near 115 mph. What felt even better, was breaking the drought and backing up his starting pitcher.
“We’ve been facing some good arms, and not being able to score runs is frustrating,” he says. “When I hit that home run, I kinda looked angry but I was just pumped up because I knew that Bettis was doing a tremendous job and not being able to score runs; I take it personally. He’s doing his thing, we have to be able to do our thing.”
And he lives for those moments. Despite trade rumors swirling around him for most of his Rockies tenure, Gonzalez maintains a singular focus. “Every time I’m in the lineup,” he says, “I want to hit in those big moments, those big opportunities. Sometimes you are going to fail, but at the same time, I’d rather have those opportunities in front of me.”
But teammate Mark Reynolds wasn’t letting CarGo have the big moments all to himself. Just an inning later, and with the game back to being a two-run affair, Reynolds pulverized a Hunter Cervenka offering, planting it into the left-center field bleachers after it played a game of pinball off the seats.
“That’s what I want to see from him. I told him to stop shooting the ball to right field,” Gonzalez says with a smile. “He’s a powerful hitter. When he squares them up he’s gonna hit it far. That’s probably the farthest home run I’ve seen the entire year.”
Well, unless you were in attendance for a Giancarlo Stanton 490-foot blast on May the 6th, it was the farthest home run anyone has seen in 2016.
“Off the bat, I was like ‘finally I hit a barrel,'” joked Reynolds who has been a good hitter all season but lacked some of his trademark power.
“It felt like me in 2009,” he continued. “I honestly think that’s my first pull home run on a fastball this year. I don’t know what’s going on with my swing or what’s going on with my approach, but I’m trying to be as consistent as I can and I’m trying to be as productive as I can.”
I ask if he happened to notice the wicked bounce the ball took once it collided with the seats in left field, but Reynolds already had his head down and was rounding the bases.
“Don’t wanna show anybody up,” he says. “Just act like a professional, like you’ve done it before.”
Not only did Reynolds’ blast one-up CarGo’s from an inning before, but it also one-upped Gonzalez’ 475-foot blast from the 10th of July, knocking the right fielder down to being the owner of just the third longest home run of 2016.
“You figure something like that would happen with me playing at Coors, right?” Reynolds said, playing down the distance of his massive shot.
“Took me long enough.”
