Jake McCarthy’s grand slam lifts Rockies to victory amid sparse attendance at Coors Field

Jake McCarthy walked midway down the primary final analysis, watching his moonshot because the ball flew.

McCarthy turned on Craig Kimbrel’s inside fastball within the eighth inning and pumped the pitch over the appropriate discipline foul pole for a grand slam. It sailed 448 toes and was lastly referred to as truthful by the first-base umpire — and upheld on evaluation.

That swing propelled the Rockies to a 6-2 win over the Mets on Thursday at Coors Field, avoiding a sweep and snapping a six-game shedding streak. McCarthy had two of the biggest swings of the game, as his RBI double within the sixth registered 19.9% ​​Win Probability Added, then his granny within the eighth was 12.5% ​​WPA. It was the Rockies’ first grand slam this season.

“It looked fair in the beginning, then it took a hard hook at the end, so I didn’t know,” McCarthy stated of the grand slam. “I was thinking, ‘Just stay fair.’ … (Kimbrel) has a good fastball, and I figured in that situation he’s going to have to come over the heart of the plate with it. So I was hunting it, but I would’ve also taken a sac fly or a seeing-eye single.”

But even with McCarthy’s offensive fireworks plus a powerful pitching efficiency by Colorado, Coors Field attendance continues to lag via the Rockies’ first 19 house video games of 2026. Of these 19 video games, eight of them have been the bottom house attendance marks in membership historical past for a franchise coming off three consecutive 100-loss seasons, together with a historic 119-defeat embarrassment in 2025.

Weather performed a consider a few of these figures, including this week. In Wednesday’s 10-5 defeat to New York, the Rockies set a brand new low with 11,155 followers in a recreation whose begin time was pushed again and that adopted a snowstorm earlier within the day. Thursday’s matinee, which was postponed from Tuesday, did not draw a lot better with 13,378 followers.

But it is clear the fan apathy generated by the previous three forgettable seasons can also be enjoying a job within the low turnsouts.

“We want to give fans something to root for, and I think we have to sort of earn their interest (back),” McCarthy stated. “That’s something we do by winning and playing a good brand of baseball.”

Here’s a glance at the Rockies’ struggling attendance in LoDo this season. Prior to 2026, the bottom house attendance in Colorado historical past was 18,119 on Sept. 22, 2005, towards the Padres.

• April 22, 8-3 win vs. Padres: 18,114
• April 7, 5-1 win vs. Astros: 17,328
• April 6, 9-7 win vs. Astros: 16,301
• April 21, 1-0 loss vs. Padres: 15,672
• May 4, 4-2 loss vs Mets: 15,564
• April 8, 9-1 win vs. Astros: 15,189
• May 7, 6-2 win vs Mets: 13,378
• May 6, 10-5 loss to Mets: 11,155

Those who had been in attendance on Thursday noticed a powerful efficiency by Jose Quintana, 14 years to the day of his MLB debut with the White Sox. Quintana threw 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball. The injury got here within the second inning, when New York scored through a sacrifice fly and RBI single.