Ezequiel Tovar, Austin Gomber lead Rockies over Tigers – The Denver Post

On fireworks night at Coors Field, Ezequiel Tovar delivered a star-spangled performance.

The Rockies’ rookie shortstop hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning and also singled in Colorado’s five-run second in an 8-5 win over the Detroit Tigers in front of a sellout crowd of 47,239.

Tovar finished the night 2-for-4, extending his career-high hitting streak to 13 games, the longest by a Rockies player this season.

“Really, everything has been the same day to day. I’m just following my process,” Tovar said in the clubhouse as he and his teammates hurried to join their families and catch the fireworks show.

Colorado also got a huge boost from starter Austin Gomber, who became the first Rockies starter to pitch seven innings during a home game this season. Gomber gave up three runs on six hits and struck out seven. Best of all, he walked only one, reversing a trend of free passes that has plagued Colorado much of the season.

“We have been saying it for the past couple of weeks that we’ve put our bullpen in a bad position,” Gomber said. “So I felt like tonight was big. I was trying to go as deep into the game as I possibly could.

“I was just fortunate to go as deep into the game as I did, and I thought the infield defense, especially, was incredible.”

Gomber is the first Colorado starter to pitch at least seven innings at Coors since Chad Kuhl’s complete-game shutout of the Dodgers on June 27, 2022. Friday’s game also marked the second time in his career that Gomber pitched seven or more innings and stuck out at least seven. The last time was on May 24, 2021, against the Mets in New York.

Tovar, at 21 the youngest position player to make his debut in franchise history, is hitting .358 (19-for-53) during his 13-game hitting streak, bringing his average up to .269. The shortstop has a hit in 26 of 29 games since May 27 and is batting .336 (38-for-113) over that span, tops on the club.

His homer was a 382-foot no-doubter to left off of lefty Jason Shreve’s first-pitch splitter. It was Tovar’s eighth homer of the season.

As thrilled as manager Bud Black has been with Tovar’s offensive production, he said, “I’ve been more impressed with the consistency of his defense.” Black made special note of the play that Tovar made near second base to scoop up Andy Ibanez’s grounder and throw him out to end the third inning.

Gomber worked his way out of one messy inning — Detroit’s two-run fourth, in which he gave up consecutive singles to Javier Baez, Jake Rogers and Miguel Cabrera, and also uncorked a wild pitch. But Gomber escaped major trouble by getting Zach short to fly out to center, striking out Jake Marisnick, and inducing Matt Vierling to ground out to second baseman Harold Castro.

Gomber retired 10 consecutive hitters from the fourth through the seventh inning and needed just 84 pitches (60 strikes) over his seven innings.

Black said he was especially pleased with Gomber’s fastball command. Gomber concurred.

“I thought my fastball command was really good tonight and better than it’s been,” Gomber said. “I got strike one a lot and that kind of set the base for us tonight.”

Detroit made things a tad bit uncomfortable in the eighth, cutting the lead to 8-5 on Andy Ibanez’s two-run homer off Jake Bird. Pierce Johnson pitched a scoreless ninth for his 13th save.

Despite their win Friday night, the Rockies finished June with a 9-18 record, tied with the 2012 club for the second-worst June in franchise history. The biggest June swoon was in 2014 when Colorado finished 8-20.