Making his first start since June 26 after a stint on the injured list with back spasms, Tomoyuki Sugano gave the Colorado Rockies 6.1 innings in a 10-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday, while TJ Rumfield delivered the four-hit, four-RBI afternoon that put the game out of reach early.
Sugano did not walk a batter, struck out three, and improved to 9-4. All three Cincinnati runs were charged to him, two of them on a pair of solo homers by Jose Trevino. For a pitcher coming off two weeks of inactivity for a back problem, the shape of the outing mattered as much as the result: strikes, quick innings, and a pitch-to-contact plan that held up in the sport’s most punishing home park.
The offense settled things in two innings. Colorado scored twice in the first and four more in the second against Rhett Lowder, who was gone after 2.1 innings having allowed eight runs on 11 hits. Rumfield finished 4-for-5 with his 13th home run — Colorado’s only homer of the day — and is hitting .302 with 104 hits. It was his first four-hit game and first four-RBI game of the season. Jake McCarthy and Mickey Moniak drove in two runs apiece, and Cole Carrigg scored three times out of the No. 3 spot as the Rockies piled up 14 hits.
The home-road ledger explains why this one looked the way it did. Colorado is 23-26 at Coors Field and 17-34 everywhere else; the offense that produced 10 runs Saturday travels poorly, and at 40-60 the front office knows it. That arithmetic is why Sugano’s health is the more consequential story. MLB Trade Rumors has pointed to the right-hander, on an expiring contract, as one of Colorado’s clearest trade candidates ahead of the August 3 deadline, and a healthy Sugano making walk-free starts is a very different asset than one nursing a back problem into late July.
The series with Cincinnati concludes Sunday.
On the fantasy side, Sugano’s zero-walk return start is encouraging, but the usual Coors caution applies and a potential deadline trade could change his home park entirely — he profiles as a matchup play until then. Rumfield is the add: a .302 average with 13 homers plays in most formats, and first basemen producing at that rate rarely sit on waiver wires for long.
