Hunter Goodman Matches Mike Piazza’s NL Catcher Record
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Six multi-homer games in one season — a number no National League catcher had reached since Mike Piazza in 1995. Here is how the Colorado Rockies catcher built the record, one milestone at a time, and where the chase stands in August.
Hunter Goodman went 4-for-4 against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday, August 1. He hit two home runs and drove in five in a 12-6 Rockies win. It was his sixth multi-homer game of 2026, and no National League catcher had recorded six in a single season since Mike Piazza in 1995. That is 31 years.
Piazza is a Hall of Famer and a 12-time All-Star. He is, in short, the measuring stick for NL catcher offense. When you match something Piazza did, the number means something specific. It means you belong to a very short list.
Goodman is the starting catcher in Colorado, a two-time NL All-Star, and the 2025 Silver Slugger at catcher — the award given each year to the best offensive player at the position in each league. The record did not arrive in one hot week. It was built across a summer, and the sub-milestones tell you how.
How it built
The first half set the pace. A three-homer night in Minneapolis on June 27 made him the fourth catcher ever to reach 25 home runs before the All-Star break, and he carried 27 into it — the most by an NL catcher at the break since Johnny Bench’s 28 in 1970. Eighteen of those 27 came on the road, so the Coors Field question was answered before the second half started.
Then came July 19 at Coors Field against Cincinnati. Goodman took Hunter Greene deep twice early, and the Rockies trailed anyway. In the eighth, with the game already grim, he stepped in against lefty Sam Moll and drove a third home run into the seats. Colorado lost 9-6. He became the first Rockies player ever with two three-homer games in one season, and finished the night with 30 home runs — the first Rockies hitter to reach 30 since 2019. Watch that eighth-inning at-bat: same routine, same read of the pitcher, same swing as the first inning. Catchers absorb more losing innings than anyone on the field, and the ones who stay dangerous every night are the ones whose at-bats do not change texture with the score.
Thirty also put him in a club with three names every catcher grows up hearing.
| NL catchers with 30+ HR in back-to-back seasons | Seasons |
|---|---|
| Roy Campanella | 1950–51 |
| Mike Piazza | 1995–2002 (eight straight) |
| Todd Hundley | 1996–97 |
| Hunter Goodman | 2025–26 |
By August 1 he had already passed his own career high of 31, and the first homer that night — a three-run shot in a six-run third, his 32nd — broke his own Rockies single-season record for a catcher. The 33rd came in the seventh. Underneath the totals, the multi-homer games kept stacking up: six of them by August 1, which is the number that reached back to Piazza.
The noise, and how he handled it
Goodman’s name ran through every trade-deadline conversation in July. The Yankees called. So did the Red Sox and the Rays. Colorado listened, then set a price high enough to cool most of it off.
On August 2, one day before the deadline, the Rockies scratched him from the lineup against Kansas City. Half of baseball read that as a deal landing any minute. It wasn’t. He had not taken a day off since July 18, and his team gave him one. The deadline passed at 6 p.m. ET on August 3, and Goodman was still a Rockie — the foundation, not the chip.
When reporters asked about the speculation, he did not describe blocking it out. He described something quieter:
“Looking at the stuff like that, it does more bad for you than good. So there’s no point, because it’s all out of your control anyway.”
There is a real difference between ignoring something and deciding it isn’t yours to carry. Ignoring takes constant effort and fails the moment someone brings it up. Goodman did the other thing. He sorted what he controlled from what he didn’t, and spent his attention on the first pile — the same sorting a catcher does every inning, when the umpire’s zone and the pitcher’s breaking ball are not his to fix and his setup, his target, and his footwork on the throw are.
August so far
The chase kept moving after the record. On August 9 he went 2-for-4 with his 34th home run and two RBI in a 7-4 loss to the Cardinals. Then, in San Francisco, left shoulder inflammation kept him out of the lineup from August 14 through 16 — three games, no injured-list stint — and on August 17 he was back behind the plate and batting third against the Dodgers.
| 2026 through Aug 16 | AVG | HR | RBI | R | Multi-HR games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter Goodman | .251 | 34 | 69 | 69 | 6 |
The catchers who reach the Piazza tier never let the position talk them out of their swing. They take ground balls and call games, and they also work the same hitting drills as the first baseman, because the swing is not something you put on hold while you master the crouch and the transfer. Goodman did not put it on hold. Two three-homer games, back-to-back 30s, six multi-homer nights, and a 31-year-old record — two-thirds of a season, night after night, doing the job that belongs to him. Sweat the gear and never fear.
Try this at your next practice
- Two-way rep block. After blocking drills, take five live swings from a partner toss without removing your gear. The goal is not to crush the ball — it is to find your swing while your body is in catcher mode. Goodman never separates the two; neither should you.
- Attack-count hitting. In BP, designate 1-0, 2-0, and 3-1 as “attack counts.” When you get one, go after it with full intent. Six multi-homer games comes from recognizing the pitch to drive and not talking yourself out of it — the July 19 eighth-inning homer was exactly that.
- Name the two piles. Before you put the gear on, say out loud one thing you control today and one thing you don’t. I control where I set my target. I don’t control whether the umpire gives me the low strike. Ten seconds, and it keeps the second pile from renting space in your head all game — the same sorting Goodman did in deadline week.
Sources: Goodman homers twice, drives in 5 runs in Rockies’ 12-6 victory over Royals (AP / FOX Sports, Aug 1, 2026) · Colorado Rockies Slugger First Catcher to Do This in 31 Years (Sports Illustrated) · Hunter Goodman hits 3 home runs in Rockies’ loss to Reds (MLB.com, July 19) · Hunter Goodman sets franchise mark with another 3-home run game (Purple Row) · Rockies All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman tunes out trade buzz, keeps up power surge as deadline nears (FOX Sports / AP) · Rockies’ Hunter Goodman scratched from lineup before trade deadline, but not for why you think (Yahoo Sports) · Trade Deadline passes quietly for Rockies (MLB.com) · Rockies All-Star Hunter Goodman Continues Monster Season in Loss to Cardinals (Sports Illustrated, Aug 9) · Hunter Goodman news and stats (RotoWire, ESPN).