The trip home should have been happy. The Rockies just about rode the pair to a win, but the Cardinals’ Iván Herrera delivered a party-crashing three-run homer that left the Rockies with a 7-6 loss.
Both tripled and homered — Carrigg’s being inside the park. However, if the production continues, the Rockies are in for some wild, happier rides. Friday was a show of two fellows easy to typecast — Carrigg with a barely contained intensity, Rumfield as collected as Carrigg is fiery.
Both, however, give the Rockies what they need. Rumfield is second among qualified rookies in OPS at .843 in 137 games — and also is first in on-base percentage (.388) and second in batting average (.295) — while Carrigg in 72 games is eighth in OPS at .800.
“TJ does a great job night in and night out,” said Carrigg, whose sixth-inning homer was his seventh and the third Rockies’ inside-the-park tally of the season. “He’s always going to put together good at-bats. He put together a good one in the bottom of the ninth to get me a good shot.
“He’s just super-calm and confident about himself, and it shows when he’s up at the plate. He never gets cheated. You know he’s always grinding up there in the box.”
Rumfield singled in the ninth, but Carrigg struck out against Cardinals closer Riley O’Brien to end the game.
Rumfield, whose seventh-inning solo shot was his 15th homer of the year, said, “It’s electric every night. You know what you’re going to get. You know you’re going to get somebody who’s competitive, who’s going to lay it all on the line, plays with a full heart, clear eyes. It’s just fun to watch every night, for sure.”
Rumfield and Carrigg are two youthful reasons the Rockies believe records like the current 54-87 won’t be their norm much longer. Friday was driven by youth.
The sixth began with the Rockies trailing, 4-1. Rumfield tripled with one out and scored on a wild pitch — just before Carrigg’s home-run dash. September call-up Adael Amador singled in another run, and rookie Zac Veen drove in another on a squeeze bunt. Troy Johnston was tagged at the plate on Veen’s play, but the Cardinals had exhausted their replay challenge on Rumfield’s triple.
“We’ve been talking about that all year, where every inning matters, every little play matters,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “There was also some really good stuff in that game — TJ, left-on-left homer [off Justin Bruihl], Amador’s [defensive] play on the other side of the bag today was fantastic. The way Cole bounced back today after a couple of mistakes and played a really good game — kept his emotions under control.
“There was a lot of good, even though we just lost.”
Jordan Romano endured his second blown save in 12 chances since joining the Rockies in July — after spending the early season with the Angels — on a pitch he “was trying to throw in the dirt.” He has come to enjoy Rumfield, Carrigg and the youth of the roster.
“I like the boys fighting to come back like that, everyone doing their job — I didn’t do my job,” Romano said.
“We’re going to flip the script at some point, but we’ve got to win those ballgames somehow,” Carrigg said.
In the context of a rebuilding club, Friday could go down as one of those games that teaches the team how to either stay out of late-game danger or pull it out in the end. Romano shouldered the ending, but Schaeffer pointed to early missed chances. The biggest may have been not scoring after Carrigg’s second-inning leadoff triple.
But Friday will be remembered. Rumfield and Carrigg both tripled and homered in the same contest. They are the second duo of rookies to do this since 1900, joining Wilson Ramos and Danny Espinosa for the Nationals on May 20, 2011. It was the fifth time overall and first time the feat has occurred for any two Rockies players since Jordan Beck and Ezequiel Tovar both did it May 17, 2025. It was the first time it has happened at home since Jeff Baker and Matt Holliday both did it Sept. 24, 2006, against the Braves.
So what if Rumfield and Carrigg don’t seem the same in manner?
“Maybe it’s in different ways,” Rumfield said. “We both just want to play baseball, and do it at the highest level and try to win baseball games.”