Moniak finishes a single shy of cycle on his birthday as Rockies club Pirates

Rockies Report, Game 43:

ROCKIES BOTTOM LINE: Mickey Moniak’s three-run homer put the punctuation on a six-run fifth inning that overturned a 3-0 deficit and ignited the Rockies to a 10-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates to even their series Wednesday night and give them a chance of a .500 road trip through Pennsylvania.

Now this is how you rally 👊 pic.twitter.com/bqmlLN8NSx

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) May 14, 2026

Moniak’s blast was part of a 3-for-5 night that saw him finish a single short of a cycle. He accumulated 5 RBI, matching his career high set last Sept. 14 against the Padres. The night snapped him out of his first slump of the season — albeit a brief one, only dating back a week.

TJ Rumfield added to the Rockies’ tally with his sixth home run of the campaign, a 415-foot shot to the back row of the right-field stands in the eighth inning to push Colorado’s lead back to three runs. The Pirates had whittled Colorado’s lead to 6-4 in the sixth inning via Ryan O’Hearn’s solo homer.

Three more insurance runs came home in the ninth inning. The first scored when former Rockies reliever Justin Lawrence hooked a throw to second base wide of Brandon Lowe and into the outfield, allowing Brett Sullivan to round third and score on what had been a fielder’s choice. Moniak provided the final two runs with his triple, allowing the Rox to snap a three-game skid since winning the road-trip opener at Philadelphia last Friday.

“After losing three straight, we could have gone down the chute, but the boys stepped up,” manager Warren Schaeffer said.

Antonio Senzatela got credit for the win, hurling three innings in which he allowed a single run. He worked efficiently, only requiring 26 pitches.

The Rockies improved to 17-26.

ROCKIES STARTER’S REPORT

The defining moment for José Quintana wasn’t any of the 73 pitches he threw over four innings of work, but the controversial interference call assessed against him by home-plate umpire Ramon De Jesus, bringing the Pirates’ second run across the plate in the second inning.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Quintana got Henry Davis to hit a grounder to the left side of the infield. Kyle Karros made a diving stop, but couldn’t throw out Brandon Lowe at second base, allowing Ryan O’Hearn to score the first run from second. But Nick Gonzales — who had started the at-bat at second base — got hung up between third base and home plate in the process of Karros attempting to throw out Lowe, so second baseman Edouard Julien ran towards the third-base line before tossing the ball to catcher Brett Sullivan to begin the rundown.

But as Gonzales broke back toward home plate, he stepped to his left and out of the base path, reached out his arms and shoved Quintana, who had moved over to help cover. Despite the fact that Gonzales initiated the contact, Quintana was called for interference, and a second run scored.

Quintana finished the night with five hits and three walks allowed over four laborious innings.

BITS AND PIECES

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: Moniak drove home a pair of runs with a triple.

NUMBER TO NOTE: .133 — Moniak’s average over the five games heading into Wednesday night, as he’d gone 2-for-15 dating back to last week’s series finale against the New York Mets.

WHAT’S NEXT: Chase Dollander looks for his first quality start of the month in the road-trip finale. Pittsburgh counters with Carmen Mlodzinski. First pitch will be at 10:35 a.m. MDT.

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