Brenton Doyle has been more than ready for his big-league close-up. The rookie center fielder proved it again Monday night in the Rockies’ 9-8 win over Cincinnati at Coors Field.
Doyle hit two home runs and a double and made a sensational diving catch, turning the game into his personal highlight reel.
“A lot of it is about my pregame routine,” Doyle said. “I’ve been getting in the cage a lot with the hitting coaches and doing a lot of the heater (pitching) machine. I mean, the exaggerated heater machine and that’s been getting me on time on fastballs lately.”
By “exaggerated,” Doyle said he’s been cranking the machine up to 100 mph.
“We talked about (Doyle’s) tools and they showed up (tonight),” manager Bud Black said. “We talked about the power, the strength of his swing, and we’ve talked about his speed.”
All of that was on display Monday night when Doyle became the first player in Rockies history to record 10 total bases and three extra-base hits from the ninth spot in the batting order.
For the record, it was second baseman Harold Castro who gave Colorado an 8-6 lead in the seventh with a two-run double into the right-field corner off right-hander Lucas Sims. Castro drove in Ryan McMahon, who led off with an infield hit, and Randal Grichuk, who drew a two-out walk from Sims.
But it’s the speedy, athletic and ultra-confident Doyle who’s becoming the story of the season for the Rockies, who improved to 9-4 in May.
“It’s early in the year and we are only a quarter of the way through,” Black said. “There are going to be peaks and valleys, and ups and downs, but a night like tonight shows what a young player can do.”
The Reds scored a run off of closer Pierce Johnson in a tense ninth inning but he hung on to record his seventh save in seven chances.
Doyle opened his performance with a two-out double to left in Colorado’s four-run second inning. His second act was a two-run, 398-foot, opposite-field homer to right off Hunter Greene in the fourth. It was Doyle’s third homer of the season and second in the last two games.
Act three played out in the seventh. Spencer Steer hit a soft flyball to shallow center for what looked like a sure bloop single, but Doyle raced in and made a diving catch, much to the delight of reliever Daniel Bard, who saluted Doyle from the mound.
“The outfield was a little bit soft tonight, so I kind of slipped on that first step,” Doyle said. “But I made a good recovery and made a good play.”
Doyle’s encore was a 441-solo homer to center off Buck Farmer in the eighth.
The Rockies had 12 hits, including a solo homer by Mike Moustakas in the second, followed by a double by Randal Grichuk and an RBI single by Castro. Charlie Blackmon capped off the inning with a two-run triple into the right-field corner.
The Rockies needed all of those hits because they did not get a solid start from right-hander Connor Seabold.
Seabold was sharp in his first two starts this season, providing a boost to the Rockies’ injury-riddled rotation. He was not as sharp against the Reds, who knocked him around for six runs (four earned) on eight hits over 4 1/3 innings. Seabold walked three and fanned three.
“That’s a team that’s been hitting well and they took some good hacks off me,” Seabold said. “They hit mistake fastballs, and then we decided to go to the slider and they made adjustments and started hitting those, too.”
Black said Seabold had “good stuff” but wants to see the right-hander throw in changeup more. Seabold said he’s working on that pitch to become comfortable enough to throw it in big situations. He also said that the six walks he issued over his last two games (9 1/3 innings) are too many.
Seabold’s defense let him down in the fourth when Kris Bryant committed a costly error on Nick Senzel’s drive to right field. Bryant had no problem chasing down the ball but it glanced off his glove and Senzel cruised into second. Seabold responded by walking Henry Ramos, opening the door for Cincy to score two unearned runs on a sacrifice fly by Stuart Fairchild and an RBI single by Jonathan India.
Cincinnati tied the game, 6-6, with two runs in the fifth. Back-to-back doubles by Spencer Steer and Tyler Stephenson off Seabold scored one run and Stephenson scored on a wild pitch by reliever Brent Suter.
Suter should have been out of the inning, but Grichuk lost Henry Ramos’ pop fly in the lights in left fielder, loading the bases for the Reds.
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