Trailing 8-1 in the sixth inning, the Rockies hit back-to-back-to-back home runs for the first time in more than seven years. But it wasn’t enough.

The Pirates hung on to win, 9-5, Sunday afternoon at Coors Field, denying Colorado its first home sweep of the season. The Rockies have not swept an opponent at Coors since May 10-12, 2024, when they took three games from the Texas Rangers.

Friday night, the Rockies came back from a 9-0 first-inning deficit to beat Pittsburgh, 17-16, on Brenton Doyle’s walk-off, two-run homer. Saturday afternoon, they trailed 4-0 but rallied for an 8-5 victory.

Sunday, however, the hole proved too deep and the climb too steep after the Pirates torched Rockies pitchers for three homers — a pair of two-run shots and a three-run blast. Pittsburgh leadoff hitter Spencer Horwitz did the most damage, belting two homers and driving in a career-high six runs.

“I never really thought we were out of the game, and I thought we were putting together some decent ABs,” Rockies left fielder Jordan Beck said. “Obviously, the (three consecutive homers) was a big moment for us, but it was just a little short.”

Beck hit one of the homers in the sixth-inning onslaught, but he wasn’t around for much longer. He was ejected in the seventh inning by home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez for arguing about a called strike three. The pitch was clearly outside of the strike zone, but Beck uttered “magic language” to Marquez and got tossed.

“I disagreed with the call, and I told him I disagreed and he threw me out,” Beck said. “I’m sure there was magic language involved, but I honestly wouldn’t say I got my money’s worth there.”

Before Colorado rallied, its bats were as mellow as the Sunday crowd of 32,394.

But in the sixth, Tyler Freeman drew a leadoff walk from right-hander Mitch Keller, who had stifled the Rockies for five innings, allowing only four hits. Then Mickey Moniak crushed a 433-foot homer down the right-field line, scoring Freeman.

Next up was catcher Hunter Goodman, who busted a bat over his thigh in frustration when he fouled out in the fourth inning. This time, Goodman ripped Keller’s 0-1 sweeper 451 feet and onto the left-field concourse. Then Beck hit Keller’s 2-2 sweeper over the left-field wall to make it an 8-5 ballgame.

It was the first time since June 19, 2018, that the Rockies hit three consecutive homers in three at-bats. In that game, Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and Ian Desmond pulled off the three-peat in a 10-8 win over the Mets at Coors Field.

The Rockies’ poor starting pitching — a major league-worst 6.23 ERA — continues to put the team in early deficits. And manager Warren Schaeffer was disappointed with the Rockies’ execution in several areas.

“There were too many mental errors,” he said. “Two-out walks, the infield not coming in on a hit, Yanquiel (Fernandez) coming off second base on a double. Ezequiel (Tovar) called timeout twice (in an at-bat).

“Unforced errors, we had a bunch of them in one game. That’s not the major reason we lost but they add up.”

Right-hander Bradley Blalock gave up seven runs on six hits over 5 2/3 innings as his ERA rose to 7.68. He walked four and struck out two.

Pittsburgh struck quickly. Horwitz led off the game with a double and scored on Nick Gonzalez’s single. Tommy Pham drove in Gonzalez with a 446-foot homer to center. Horwitz’s two-run homer in the second put Pittsburgh ahead, 5-0. His three-run homer off lefty reliever Ryan Rolison in the sixth put the Pirates ahead, 8-1.

Monday’s pitching matchup

Blue Jays LHP Eric Lauer (6-2, 2.68 ERA) at Rockies RHP Tanner Gordon (2-3, 4.85), 6:40 p.m.

6:40 p.m. Monday, Coors Field

TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).

Radio: 850 AM, 94.1 FM

Trending: The Rockies, 8-7 since the All-Star break, have won three consecutive home series after taking two of three games from the Pirates over the weekend. Colorado won two of three at Coors Field against Minnesota and St. Louis to begin the second half of the season to claim back-to-back series wins for the first time since Sept. 13-18, 2024.

Pitching probables

Tuesday: Blue Jays RHP Jose Berrios (7-4, 3.84) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (2-11, 5.26), 6:40 p.m.

Wednesday: Blue Jays RHP Kevin Gausman (7-8, 3.99) at Rockies TBA, 1:10 p.m.

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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis verbally declared a disaster emergency for the Elk fire burning southeast of Meeker in Rio Blanco County, according to a news release from his office.

The lightning-sparked wildfire started just after noon Saturday and had spread to roughly 600 acres by 2 p.m. Sunday, according to the Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s officials said the fire, which is burning on a mix of private, Bureau of Land Management and state-owned land, prompted evacuations on both sides of County Road 8 between mile markers 11 and 16.

“Fire crews, along with air and ground support, are actively engaged in suppression efforts,” sheriff’s officials stated in a Sunday afternoon update. “Smoke is visible due to the hot and dry conditions contributing to active fire behavior.”

No structures are currently threatened, but residents and travelers are asked to avoid the area, officials said.

The governor’s disaster declaration allows state officials to direct more resources to fighting the wildfire.

“Fire conditions in northwest Colorado are at near record levels, and elevated fire weather and fire risk is forecast for the coming week,” Polis’ news release stated.

Another new wildfire burning about 80 miles south, near Carbondale in Garfield County, forced evacuations across the community on Sunday, according to fire officials.

The Ranch at Coulter Creek fire sparked near a subdivision with the same name Sunday morning, north of Panorama Drive, according to an 11:24 a.m. post from the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District.

The Panorama subdivision, the Ranch at Coulter Creek and areas east of County Road 100 to Upper Cattle Creek Road were under mandatory evacuation orders Sunday, according to the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office.

Those evacuation orders were lifted at 5 p.m., sheriff’s officials said.

The fire had burned roughly 115 acres with no containment by 4:30 p.m., Carbondale fire officials said.

The new wildfires are burning northeast of three other major fires still active on Colorado’s Western Slope.

The Wright Draw, Turner Gulch and South Rim fires have collectively burned 26,381 acres, according to estimates from fire officials. The Sowbelly fire, which was fully contained on Friday, consumed another 2,274 acres in western Colorado.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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That might be bad news for Colorado’s nutrition department, and the folks who run the kitchen at the Champions Center. But for a Buffaloes program starved for consistency up front, the sort of hunger that stirs competition could be one of the biggest keys to CU’s 2025 season.

Crisler, a 6-foot-7, 340-pound transfer from Illinois, is one of the most critical cogs along the Buffs’ retooled offensive line. Finding the pieces that will fuse cohesively alongside sophomore Jordan Seaton, who is entrenched at left tackle, is one of the priorities of the preseason for a CU attack breaking in a new quarterback along with an abundance of new talents at receiver and running back.

The good news, according to Crisler, is the competition up front means the guys that line up for the season opener at home against Georgia Tech on Aug. 29 will have earned the jobs.

“There’s competition every day,” Crisler said. “You never know what’s going on. You never know who you’re playing beside every day. It’s competition every day. Everybody want it. They’re hungry. I like competition because that means I ain’t going to get comfortable and then somebody going to take my spot. And that’s how I look at it.”

A native of Perkinston, Miss., the transfer to CU actually marked the third stop of Crisler’s collegiate career, which began in 2021 at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where he earned second team all-conference honors.

Crisler transferred to Illinois and evolved into a consistent Big Ten starter under head coach Bret Bielema.

Crisler played 37 games in three seasons at Illinois, making 28 starts. Most of those (26) were at right guard, though Crisler also made two starts at right tackle. Crisler believes the regular NFL-caliber competition he faced at Illinois has prepared him to take the next step with the Buffs, and he earned a pair of honorable mention all-Big Ten honors (by the coaches in 2022 and the media in 2023).

“Being at Illinois helped me a lot. They threw me in the fire as a young bull,” Crisler said. “It got me to where I’m at today. Right now I’m ballin’, doing my thing. I feel like it helped me, throwing me in the fire and playing against older guys who are in the league right now.”

The Shedeur Sanders-led attack of the past two seasons, which also featured Heisman Trophy-winning receiver Travis Hunter and three other receivers currently in NFL camps, was able to put up big numbers despite the struggles of the offensive line. CU surrendered 99 sacks the past two seasons, the most in the nation, and also ranked last in rushing both years.

With no readily-apparent NFL talent to bail out the Buffs on a regular basis once again this season, improved play up front will be all but required for CU to be a factor in the Big 12 race. Along with Crisler, the Buffs are likely to open the season leaning heavily on other experienced transfers like Xavier Hill (Memphis), Larry Johnson III (Tennessee) and Zarian McGill (Louisiana Tech).

“We’re trying to score,” Crisler said. “No sugar-coating nothin’. We just want to score the ball. We’re going to do our thing. We’ve got a big ol’ line now. It should be fun to see.”

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He was heading north on Colo. 93, just short of its intersection with Colo. 128, when the driver shifted partially into the oncoming lane on July 22, according to Colorado State Patrol.

It was around 5:30 p.m. that Tuesday when August, of Northglenn, and his friend crashed head-on with an SUV. The car August was in spun off before hitting another SUV. The second SUV connected with August’s side of the car.

August was sent to Boulder Community Health while unconscious, said his mother, Amy Soto. She was about to head into an Orange Theory gym to teach a class when she heard from August’s friend’s father that the boys were in a crash. She said the friend’s father told her, “It doesn’t look good.”

“It was the worst call I’ve ever gotten,” Amy said. “As a parent, that’s like the biggest nightmare you can think of.”

August’s friend was sent to a hospital with minor injuries and is OK now, Amysaid. According to CSP, the two other drivers — neither of whose cars had any passengers — suffered minor to moderate injuries and were not sent to a hospital.

Amy immediately tried to get to her son. She got stuck in traffic on Colo. 93 trying to reach him — the road had been blocked because of the very crash her son was in. She got to the hospital but had to wait for the OK to see him.

At the hospital, a medical team put August into a medically induced coma. He had suffered a traumatic brain injury, bruised his lung and endured three spinal fractures, Amy said.

He was later transported to another facility , put on a ventilator, then slowly taken off it the next day. It wasn’t until about three days after the crash that August started to wake up — for only about a minute at a time, at first, his mother said.

He was unable to retain memories yet because of the brain injury. He was paranoid and in disbelief about what happened to him that Tuesday. But he was awake and slowly becoming coherent again.

One week after the crash, August was reading again, writing again, remembering again. By this Wednesday, Amy said, “he’s doing amazing.” August would even be able to ease his way back into school this fall, she said.

That does not mean, though, that recovery will be an easy process. He may look OK, Amy said, but TBIs affect what’s underneath. August’s personality hasn’t yet come back, she added.

TBIs can be debilitating when serious. Amy said August’s medical team said his injury landed between “moderate” and “severe.” It will take a year before his full road to recovery can be assessed; it will also take that long to gauge how full the recovery can ever be, she said.

However, he’s doing better than he could have been, Amy said.

“We are very blessed,” Amy said during only the third time she’s spent more than a moment away from August since 6:30 p.m. July 22. She’d taken one meeting with medical staff, been to the gym once for about 45 minutes and spoken to the Daily Camera.

“I could barely look at my phone,” Amy said of her time up until this Wednesday. “It’s been probably one of the most traumatic experiences we’ve had as a family.”

Besides those three brief times, she has lived, eaten and slept in that hospital room with August.

August, who is the second youngest in a family of five boys. August, who is a state-qualifying wrestler for Broomfield High School. August, who has played football, rugby, and track and field. August, who spends his winter mornings before school shoveling snow out of neighbors’ driveways. August, who, just two days before the crash, went on a fishing trip in the Leadville area with the same friend who was driving him home that night.

Amy said August has built a community around him that has shown out in droves to support him. “Every teacher, every person loves him,” she said. Friends’ mothers have dropped off food — August’s friends have offered to do the Sotos’ yard work. High school students are donating their own money, Amy said, to a GoFundMe meant to help the Sotos pay August’s medical bills.

August’s best friend, Josh Hanes, started the fundraiser imploring folks to “Support August Soto’s Road to Recovery.” By Wednesday — the day the two boys were supposed to be going to Florida for vacation — it had surpassed $14,000 in donations.

To support August, Amy will have to miss work for an extended period of time, she said. The fundraiser will help the family support August through his recovery process.

“I’m honestly blown away,” Amy said of the outpouring of support she has seen. “And I’m not one to ask for help.”

Now, August is focusing on two things, Amy said: going home and wrestling again. The medical team has told the Sotos he might be able to go home in a couple of weeks — though that has not stopped August from trying to bribe his visitors to get him out of there sooner.

Wrestling, though, may not be as simple. The family doesn’t know yet how August’s TBI will affect his ability to compete, but the prospect of being unable to wrestle scares him, Amy said.

That’s been particularly hard for the teenager. It’s been “since he was literally in diapers that he was on the mat,” his mom said.

For now, though, the Sotos are trying to keep things steady and prepare for the road to recovery and rehabilitation. They are not dwelling over whose fault the crash may have been, the cause or anything else besides August.

“Our goal is just to make his life as consistent as possible right now,” Amy said.

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Halvorsen, the 25-year-old, hard-throwing right-hander, was placed on the 15-day injured list with an elbow strain. He underwent an MRI on Sunday, but the Rockies were seeking multiple opinions and did not have anything to report after the Rockies’ 9-5 loss to Pittsburgh.

Halvorsen, 1-2 with a 4.99 ERA and 11 saves over 41 appearances, was abruptly pulled in the ninth inning of Colorado’s 8-5 win over Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon.

“We will know more after the MRI; I hate to speculate,” manager Warren Schaeffer said Sunday morning before the Rockies played the Pirates in the series finale.

The Rockies optioned Toglia to Triple-A Albuquerque for the second time this season. The emergence of hot-hitting Warming Bernabel left Toglia in limbo — and on the bench. The club believes that Toglia needs consistent at-bats if he’s going to escape a season-long slump characterized by a .194 batting average and a 38.3% strikeout rate.

In a corresponding move, the club recalled catcher Braxton Fulford from Triple-A, which gives the Rockies three catchers on the current 26-man roster. Fulford joins starter Hunter Goodman and veteran backup Austin Nola.

“Basically, the most important thing with that roster decision is to get Michael Toglia playing every day,” Schaeffer said. “So he’s going to go down to (Albuquerque) and play and work on what he needs to work on, to be better, so he can come back to help us. … Michael doesn’t need to be here and sit the bench. No good comes from that.”

Regarding having three catchers on the roster, Schaeffer said: “It’s good to have Braxton here. He’s a young player and it’s a good time to get him experience, moving into next year. So we will see how that catching scenario works out, obviously.

” ‘Goody’ is going to catch the majority of the games, but we have to discuss, as a staff, the catching situation.”

Toglia, who turns 27 on Aug. 16, remains an enigma. The 2019 first-round draft choice out of UCLA appeared to turn the corner last season. After his final recall from Triple-A on June 6, he slashed .232/.331/.470 in 100 games and hit 21 home runs, tying for 10th in the National League over that span. He started 90 consecutive games at first base through the end of the season.

But he’s regressed in 2025. Schaeffer said getting Toglia right will take both physical and mental adjustments.

“At some point, you just have to go and play better,” Schaeffer said. “That’s where Michael is. The mental resets — that’s happened this year, for sure — but he needs to go down there and work on what he needs to work on. He needs to flatten his bat path out. He needs to handle the top third of the zone where he’s swinging and missing a lot. He knows all of these things.”

Bullpen structure. Losing Halvorsen, no matter for how long, is a blow to an already thin bullpen. To shore up the ‘pen, the Rockies recalled veteran right-hander Nick Anderson from Triple-A.

Anderson, 35, got shelled in his one game with Colorado this season. In an 18-0 loss at Baltimore on July 26, he gave up five runs on six hits in one inning.

Before last week’s trade deadline, the Rockies dealt away veteran right-handed relievers Jake Bird (to the Yankees) and Tyler Kinley (Braves), leaving the bullpen inexperienced. Plus, rookie right-hander Zach Agnos went on the 15-day IL on July 27 with a right flexor strain.

Schaeffer said that right-handers Victor Vodnik and Juan Mejia will man the back end of the bullpen, with veteran Jimmy Herget also pitching late in games more frequently.

Left-hander Carson Palmquist will primarily be used as a long reliever, though he could see time later in games against left-handed hitters.

Crim claimed. The Rockies claimed first baseman Blaine Crim off waivers from the Rangers Sunday and optioned him to Triple-A. Crim, 28, made his big league debut with Texas earlier this year but he played in just five games, going 0 for 11 with a walk and six strikeouts. Crim was a 19th-round pick by Texas in 2019 out of Mississippi College.

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The technology, called the Electron Beam Dust Mitigation system, uses electron beams to repel and remove space dust from surfaces, including spacesuits, solar panels, optical lenses and thermal blankets. The technology has demonstrated cleaning efficacy of up to 92% for those surfaces, and it could help mitigate dust hazards for space exploration, especially places like the Moon, which has lunar dust.

The team of researchers is part of CU Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and founded a company called Space Dust Research & Technologies LLC. The company was one of 10 winners of NASA’s TechLeap Prizes in the Space Technology Payload Challenge. Their Electron Beam Dust Mitigation system was selected out of more than 200 applicants. The team will receive up to $500,000 and the opportunity to flight test their technology next summer.

“We are thrilled by the opportunity to build a flight-ready model of the Electron Beam Dust Mitigation technology to potentially benefit future lunar missions,” LASP researcher and company co-founder Xu Wang said in a release.

Dust mitigation is a major issue for NASA because it gets everywhere. Lunar dust, or dust on the moon, is extremely fine, abrasive and sharp, according to NASA, which makes it a bigger threat. The lunar dust, which is made from crushed rocks, can clog mechanisms, interfere with instruments, cause radiators to overheat and tear up spacesuits.

“EBDM has the potential to extend the life of rovers, landers, habitats, and other crucial assets on the lunar surface,” company co-founder and CU Boulder physics professor Mihaly Horanyi said in a release.

The goal of the NASA TechLeap Prize is to support future missions and reduce risk, according to its website. NASA wants to more quickly identify and develop technologies that could help solve critical space problems, such as lunar dust.

Daveon Javon-James Jackson was arrested shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday on suspicion of leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death, careless driving resulting in death, hit-and-run and failing to report a crash, Aurora Police Department spokesperson Joe Moylan said in an email to The Denver Post.

Aurora officers responded to the hit-and-run crash at 11:18 p.m. Friday near East Wesley Drive and South Dunkirk Street.

When officers arrived, they found a 16-year-old with serious injuries, police said. The teen had been riding a scooter in the bike lane when he was hit.

Paramedics took the unidentified 16-year-old to the hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

Numerous tips from the community helped officers identify the suspect vehicle — a blue 2014 Dodge Charger, Moylan said. From there, traffic and patrol officers were able to trace the car back to Jackson.

Jackson has not yet been charged, and no court date was available Sunday morning.

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The club has signed center back Rob Holding from Premier League club Crystal Palace, the team announced on Sunday. The deal is a free transfer and will last through the end of the 2026 season.

Holding, 29, has spent the majority of his career at EPL giant Arsenal, which, like the Rapids, is owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. His best season was the 2020-21 campaign, when he made 30 appearances for more than 2,500 minutes. Outside of that season, he has not surpassed 1,000 minutes in a single campaign in the Premier League.

Holding had a conflict with Crystal Palace coach Oliver Glasner last year, according to the BBC. In September, Glasner said Holding was “training individually” while playing matches with the club’s U-21 team in Premier League 2. He was loaned to Championship side Sheffield United for the latter half of the 2024-25 season.

“We will talk together — he knows the reason. But it is something that stays between Rob and me. Nothing public,” Glasner said at the time.

In a brief statement, Crystal Palace announced Holding “left the club” last week.

He is now in Colorado, but cannot train with the team until he receives a work visa, which can be a lengthy process. In 2023, when forward Rafael Navarro was signed in July, he had to wait more than a month to debut while his visa application was processed.

The move is a good supplement for the loss of Awaziem, the Rapids’ best defender. He made a sudden move to his former club FC Nantes in France last month.

The Rapids also signed a young center back in Noah Cobb on loan from Atlanta United last week.

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The Krasheninnikov volcano sent ash 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) into the sky, according to staff at the Kronotsky Reserve, where the volcano is located. Images released by state media showed dense clouds of ash rising above the volcano.

“The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano toward the Pacific Ocean. There are no populated areas along its path, and no ashfall has been recorded in inhabited localities,” Kamchatka’s emergencies ministry wrote on Telegram during the eruption.

The eruption was accompanied by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake and prompted a tsunami warning for three areas of Kamchatka. The tsunami warning was later lifted by Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Services.

“This is the first historically confirmed eruption of the Krasheninnikov volcano in 600 years,” Olga Girina, head of the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program, based in the U.S., however, lists Krasheninnikov’s last eruption as occurring 475 years ago in 1550.

The reason for the discrepancy was not clear.

The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team said late Sunday that the volcano’s activity was decreasing but that “moderate explosive activity” could continue.

The eruption occurred after a huge earthquake struck Russia’s Far East early Wednesday, an 8.8-magnitude temblor that caused small tsunami waves in Japan and Alaska and prompted warnings for Hawaii, North and Central America and Pacific islands south toward New Zealand.

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Shots were fired near an Aurora apartment complex in the 1000 block of Cimarron Circle shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, according to a news release from the police department.

When officers arrived, they found two women had been shot, Aurora police said in the release.

A 26-year-old woman died from her injuries at the scene, police said. Paramedics took the second victim, a 30-year-old woman, to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office will identify the 26-year-old victim.

Investigators believe the shooting started as a domestic violence incident and that the people involved knew each other.

Police are working to identify a suspect who left the scene of the shooting before officers arrived. As of Sunday morning, no suspects had been publicly identified and no arrests had been made.

Denver police are investigating two separate shootings that wounded four.

Three people were shot near Sixth Avenue and Knox Court in the city’s Barnum neighborhood, Denver police said Sunday in a 4:23 a.m. post on social media.

All three victims are expected to survive, but no suspect information was available Sunday morning.

Another person was shot in Denver’s Union Station neighborhood, near 19th and Little Raven streets, according to a 1:40 a.m. post from the police department.

Information on the extent of the victim’s injuries was not available Sunday morning. No suspects have been publicly identified or arrested.

Anyone with information about the shootings is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.

Denver officers are also investigating an unrelated homicide in the 2200 block of Glenarm Place, according to a Saturday evening statement from the police department.

Additional information, including how and when the victim died, was not available Sunday morning.

The victim will be identified by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner. 

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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