Moniak’s Walk-Off Triple Lifts Rockies Over Cubs 6-5
Mickey Moniak delivered late-game heroics in Denver on Sunday, hitting a walk-off triple in the ninth inning to give the Colorado Rockies a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs. With the game tied and one out, Ryan Ritter led off with a single against Daniel Palencia (1-5) before Moniak lined a shot into the right-field corner that ricocheted off the wall and past Kyle Tucker. Ritter scored standing up, and the Rockies avoided a sweep to start their nine-game homestand.
Orlando Arcia paced Colorado’s offense with three hits, while Braxton Fulford and Ritter added two apiece. Juan Mejia (2-1) earned the win in relief. Tanner Gordon gave the Rockies six strong innings, allowing four runs on six hits while striking out nine—the first Colorado pitcher this season to record nine strikeouts in a game.
The Cubs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second when Seiya Suzuki doubled home two runs off Gordon. Colorado answered in the bottom half against starter Matthew Boyd, who yielded four runs and six hits in six innings. Fulford doubled to start the inning and later scored on Tyler Freeman’s bunt single, while Brenton Doyle tied it with an RBI single to center.
The Rockies took control in the fourth after Kyle Farmer drew a two-out walk. Fulford tripled to the wall in right-center to bring him home, and Arcia followed with an RBI single to make it 4-2. Gordon worked through trouble in the sixth, and his teammates extended the lead to 5-2 in the seventh when Doyle’s sacrifice fly scored a run. But the Cubs stormed back in the eighth, with Ian Happ crushing a three-run homer—his 18th of the season—to tie the game at 5-5.
Despite three hits from Tucker and Happ’s late blast, Chicago missed a chance to gain ground on the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central and now sits 6 1/2 games back. The Rockies, meanwhile, celebrated Moniak’s decisive swing that capped one of their most dramatic wins of the season.
