DENVER (AP) — Brenton Doyle homered for the fourth time in five games, Austin Gomber won for the first time in seven weeks and the Colorado Rockies beat the Kansas City Royals 3-1 on Saturday night.
Gomber (2-5) allowed a run on six hits in seven innings and struck out three in his first victory since May 15. He outdueled Royals ace Seth Lugo, with Ryan McMahon having three hits to help Colorado win its third straight.
“That was the best result that I’ve had in a while, but I’ve felt really good the last couple of weeks. I’ve just been kind of honing it in," Gomber said. “I thought I had a really good fastball, a good curveball, some good sliders at times. But really I thought it was kind of the fastball, curveball that kind of carried it for me today.”
Royals manager Matt Quatraro said the way Gomber mixed his fastball and breaking pitches kept his hitters off balance.
“I think when we looked hard, he threw soft and vice versa,” Quatraro said. “We didn’t square up a whole lot of balls, so you’ve got to give him credit.”
Lugo (11-3) went six innings, allowing five hits and three runs — two earned. He struck out five and walked two.
In the second inning, Doyle hit his 11th homer of the season after Brendan Rodgers reached on third baseman Maikel Garcia’s throwing error.
Doyle has had an exceptionally strong homestand, going 11 for 17 with four doubles, four home runs and nine RBIs in five games.
Doyle drove Lugo’s 1-1 offering over the fence in right-center and into the Rockies bullpen 408 feet away.
“Guys like him are not easy to face and he’s been doing really well all year,” Doyle said about Lugo. “He’s been throwing really well all year and to get a hit like that off him is pretty huge for me, and to fire the team up a little bit. We played a good rest of the game.”
The drive snapped Lugo’s scoreless innings streak at 13 and led to his first loss on the road this season. He had dominated in his nine previous road starts, going 7-0 with a 1.93 ERA.
“I felt like I really had to battle out there,” Lugo said. “A few little things mechanically were off, but I felt like I made some good pitches. I made a few mistakes, but the defense played great behind me and we kept the team in the game and had a chance the whole way. So that's a positive I can take away from that."
Vinnie Pasquantino homered for Kansas City, and Hunter Renfroe had three hits. The Royals are 2-9 in their last 11 road games.
Pasquantino connected off Gomber with two outs in the sixth inning. Salvador Perez followed Pasquantino’s homer with a drive down the line in right that Jake Cave caught on the run, crashing into the wall. Kansas City right fielder Kyle Isbel reciprocated in the bottom of the sixth when he robbed Doyle of extra bases, snaring a sinking line drive to center at the end of a long run.
With Kansas City runners at the corners with two outs in the ninth, Victor Vodnik retired pinch-hitter Michael Massey on an infield grounder for his first save.
McMahon’s RBI single fifth made it 3-0.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Royals: LHP Kris Bubic has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, completing a 447-day rehab and recovery from Tommy John surgery. He made just three starts in 2023 before undergoing reconstructive elbow surgery in April 2023. He’ll work out of the bullpen, at least initially. LHP Walter Pennington, who retired both batters that he faced Friday night in his major league debut, has been optioned to Omaha to make roster room for Bubic.
Rockies: Trying to give Ryan Feltner bit of a break from a heavy workload, manager Bud Black opted to push back Feltner’s scheduled start Sunday by a day. Feltner is now slated to start Monday night in Cincinnati. The Rockies called up RHP Tanner Gordon from their Triple A affiliate in Albuquerque and he’s slated to make his major league debut as the starter for the Rockies in Sunday’s series finale.
UP NEXT
RHP Brady Singer (4-5, 3.05 ERA) is slated to start for the Royals on Sunday in the finale of their three-game set at Colorado. He’ll be opposed by RHP Tanner Gordon (0-0, 0.00), who was promoted from Triple-A Albuquerque and is slated to make his MLB debut.