Ryan McMahon, Rockies end slide with comeback win against Yankees at sold-out Coors Field

Corey Masisak, The Denver Post on May 24, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DENVER — There haven’t been many grand old nights at the ballpark in LoDo this season, but May 23 will be remembered as one of them.

A full stadium hung on every pitch in the late innings. Sure, many of them were here to root for the visitors, but the Colorado Rockies found a way to defeat the New York Yankees, 3-2, in front of an electric crowd of 47,211 at Coors Field.

“It was beautiful to see a complete game out there,” Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. “It was just fun. That’s fun baseball.”

Tanner Gordon was an unexpected hero, and earned his first career win. Then Ryan McMahon delivered the huge hit that has evaded this Rockies club so often in what has already felt like a lost season. The victory snapped a five-game losing streak and improved the Rockies’ record to 9-42.

First pitch was at 6:40 p.m., but the “Let’s Go Yankees” chants began a minute earlier. There was a roll-call attempt from the visiting fans in right field.

It felt like a long night at Yankee Stadium West was forthcoming, especially when New York grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Gordon, called up to start because top prospect Chase Dollander went on the disabled list, had other ideas.

Gordon made his second start of the year for the Rockies, and it was a good one. Schaeffer set his expectations before the game for the 27-year-old right-hander — attack with his best stuff, regardless of who was at the plate.

“It was really exciting, to say the least,” Gordon said. “Going up against a team like the Yankees, you think you’ve got to be perfect and you’ve got to hit all your spots. But then you remember you have a really good defense behind you, and that’s kind of what took the pressure off my shoulders.”

Aaron Judge singled and scored in the first. He earned “M-V-P” chants from the visiting fans after a home run in the fifth put the Yankees in front 2-1. But outside of a triple off the wall from Paul Goldschmidt that scored Judge in the first, Gordon was efficient through six solid innings.

Gordon got some help from Adael Amador on a great snag that turned into a double play in the fourth, but otherwise, he kept Colorado in this game until McMahon could deliver the big hit. He struck out five batters, including Anthony Volpe, to finish a 1-2-3 sixth at the end of his outing.

“He was really good, man,” McMahon said of Gordon. “I think he made one mistake to Judge, and Judge didn’t even get it that good. He’s just a freak, and he’s strong.”

McMahon scored Colorado’s first run after a walk, wild pitch and a single from Kyle Farmer. When he came to the plate in the fifth, there were two runners on, and Hunter Goodman had just chased Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt with the second of back-to-back singles.

New York manager Aaron Boone summoned his lefty sidewinder, Tim Hill. The deception did not faze McMahon. He sent an 87-mile-per-hour sinker deep into the Denver night, missing a home run by inches as it glanced off the yellow stripe at the top of the centerfield wall for a two-run double and a 3-2 lead.

“Mac, what a night,” Schaeffer said. “Two walks, a big-time two-run double, a bare-hand play. He showed why he’s a really good player.”

The Yankees threatened in the eighth, when Trent Grisham drew a leadoff walk and brought Judge to the plate. His duel with Colorado’s top relief pitcher this season, Jake Bird, ended with another raucous round of applause … but from the hometown fans. Judge grounded into a 6-3 double play, then Bird punched out Ben Rice on strikes.

New York put a runner on in the ninth, but McMahon’s bare-hand play to get Volpe came at a moment where things have often gone awry for this team. When Austin Wells flew out to shortstop for the final out, there was another roar from the home fans. It was the kind of night Rockies fans have longed for, and their ball club delivered.

“I think when we got the Judge double play, guys really built off that,” McMahon said. “There are other moments in the game for sure. It’s just stacking those little bits of positive things.

“You just want to play good ball games against good teams, and that’s what we did tonight. Hopefully we can build off it.”

Footnotes

Schaeffer said Michael Toglia will be back in the starting lineup Saturday after three consecutive days off. Toglia has struggled this season, with a league-leading 71 strikeouts. He had eight in 12 at-bats in the three games before this mini-break. Toglia did replace Farmer for defense at first base in the eighth inning of this contest.