The Rockies, 8-42 entering Friday’s series-opener against the Yankees, began the 2025 campaign with the worst 50-game start to a season in the modern era. And yet, baseball’s worst team defeated the first-place Bombers, 3-2, at Coors Field.
Colorado took the lead in the fifth inning after Clarke Schmidt allowed two-out singles to Ezequiel Tovar and Hunter Goodman. With runners on the corners, Tim Hill replaced Schmidt to face Ryan McMahon. The left-on-left matchup didn’t go as planned for the Yankees, as McMahon drilled Hill’s sinker off the top of the center field wall for a two-run double.
The two runs were charged to Schmidt, who also gave up an RBI single to Kyle Farmer in the fourth following a McMahon walk and a wild pitch.
Schmidt, struggling to snap his breaking balls early on given Denver’s high altitude, totaled 4.2 innings, six hits, three earned runs, two walks and eight strikeouts. He threw a season-high 97 pitches.
The Yankees started the scoring, as a first-inning Paul Goldschmidt triple plated Aaron Judge, who singled. Judge then crushed his 17th home run of the season, a solo shot, off Rockies starter Tanner Gordon in the fifth. The blast tied Judge with the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber for the major league lead in home runs.
The longball also gave Judge his first-career home run at Coors Field in his first-career game there.
The Yankees had another opportunity to score in the fourth with runners on first and second and nobody out, but Austin Wells grounded into a double play when he hit a hot-shot grounder to second baseman Adael Amador. Former Rockie DJ LeMahieu then grounded out to end the inning with a runner on third.
The listless Yankees stranded a total of four runners and went 0-for-5 with men in scoring position. Gordon, the owner of a 5.68 ERA entering the game, totaled six innings and two earned runs in his first big league win.
With their latest west coast road trip starting on a sour note, the Yankees will try to rebound against the abysmal Rockies on Saturday. Max Fried will give them a great shot at that, as the lefty is 6-0 with a 1.29 ERA this season.
Kyle Freeland will start for Colorado as it looks for consecutive wins for just the second time this season. The southpaw is 0-6 with a 5.68 ERA.
