Colorado Rockies Hunter Goodman circles the bases after hitting a two run home run against the Las Vegas A’s in the bottom of the first inning at Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin NV on Sun Jun 14, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Mauricio Segura

Although the Las Vegas A’s scored almost double digit runs, It’s the Rockies who fly home Sunday singing Viva Las Vegas with a 23-9 rout!

Colorado opened the scoring in the first when Tyler Freeman reached on Max Muncy’s throwing error and Hunter Goodman followed with a two-run homer to center. That could have been an early gut check for the Athletics, but their lineup answered right away.

Lawrence Butler singled, Nick Kurtz reached with a walk, and Tyler Soderstrom ripped a run-scoring double to right. Carlos Cortes then gave Las Vegas the lead with a two-run single, and Muncy added a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2.

The problem was Colorado never stopped applying pressure. Cole Carrigg singled to start the second, Kyle Karros followed with another hit, and Troy Johnston’s groundout brought home a run. Then Willi Castro flipped the game with a two-run homer to left center, putting the Rockies back ahead 5-4. Kurtz tied it in the bottom half with a double that scored Alika Williams, but that was the last time the game resembled a fair fight.

The Rockies broke through again in the fourth. Carrigg singled, Karros doubled him home, and Johnston drilled a two-run homer to right to push Colorado ahead 8-5. Kurtz got one back in the bottom of the inning with a groundout that scored Jeff McNeil, but the fifth inning buried the A’s under a pile of extra-base hits.

Goodman homered again, Ezequiel Tovar singled, Carrigg reached, Karros singled in a run, Johnston doubled in another, Braxton Fulford lifted a sacrifice fly, Castro singled home Johnston, and Freeman tripled in Castro. By the time it ended, Colorado had scored six times in the inning and led 14-6.

To their credit, the Athletics did not disappear at the plate. Zack Gelof doubled in the fifth and scored when Muncy launched a two-run homer to left, trimming the deficit to 14-8. Soderstrom added a center-field homer in the seventh, continuing a strong stretch in which he has been finding a way aboard almost every day.

Gelof also singled later, stretching his hitting streak to 18 games after entering with the longest active run in the majors. Soderstrom’s reaching-base streak grew as well, and Kurtz also kept his own on-base run alive after entering the day among the league leaders in several major offensive categories.

Every A’s answer was swallowed by another Rockies surge as if fueled by the 100 degree Las Vegas heat. Colorado added four more in the seventh, with Freeman, TJ Rumfield, Goodman and Tovar all driving in runs. The eighth was even rougher.

Castro crushed a bases-loaded homer to right, Rumfield followed with a solo shot, and Colorado’s lead ballooned to 23-9. Castro finished with two homers and seven RBI, while Goodman had a monster day of his own with two homers, five hits and four RBI. Johnston, Karros, Rumfield and Tovar also joined the hit parade as Colorado finished with six homers and relentless traffic from top to bottom.

The Athletics even had to use Cortes on the mound late, with the outfielder pitching left-handed in the eighth and ninth after Scott Barlow’s outing stretched the bullpen thin. Cortes gave up Rumfield’s homer but also finished the ninth with a double play, the kind of strange baseball footnote that only shows up in a game that has already gone sideways and started asking for directions.

Las Vegas made so many home runs disappear into the desert sky this week that even David Copperfield and Penn & Teller stood and applauded. But the sweep eluded the Athletics, as the Rockies made sure the series finale belonged entirely to them.

The A’s still had bright offensive moments from Butler, Kurtz, Soderstrom, Gelof and Muncy, but there was no hiding from the obvious: Colorado’s bats controlled the day, and the Athletics’ pitching staff could not find enough answers.

The A’s now return to West Sacramento to host Pittsburgh, with the A’s J.T. Ginn (4-3, 3.15 ERA, 65 K) set to face Pirates right-hander Jared Jones (1-0, 4.73 ERA, 14 K), a matchup Monday set to begin at 6:40 p.m. Pacific.

Costa Rican-born Mauricio Segura has been covering sports in the Bay Area since 2001 for a variety of magazines and newspapers, as well as his own publication, Golden Bay Times.

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