Hunter Goodman Hits Three Home Runs Again
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Hunter Goodman became the first player in Colorado Rockies history with multiple three-homer games in the same season — and the lesson he left behind is for every catcher who’s ever played through a loss.
No Colorado Rockies player had ever done it twice in the same season. On July 19, Hunter Goodman changed that. The Rockies’ catcher hit three home runs against the Cincinnati Reds at Coors Field, becoming the first player in franchise history with multiple three-homer games in a single year. Colorado lost 9-6, but Goodman authored a performance the record books will carry for a long time.
He went after starter Hunter Greene in the early innings, connecting twice. The Rockies trailed. It did not stop him. In the eighth, with the outcome already grim, Goodman stepped in against lefty reliever Sam Moll and drove his third home run of the night into the seats. Three at-bats. Three swings that mattered. Five RBI total.
The two-time NL All-Star — 2025 and 2026 — and 2025 NL Silver Slugger Award winner finished the night with 30 home runs on the season. He is the first Rockies hitter to reach that mark since 2019. He joins Larry Walker, Todd Helton, and Carlos González as the only players in Colorado history to hit three home runs in a single game — and the only catcher among them.
His first three-homer game came June 27 in Minnesota. Two three-homer games in one season had never been done in Rockies history. Goodman made it look like a habit.
What a catcher can learn from this
The Rockies lost by three runs. Hunter Goodman still authored one of the most historic offensive performances in franchise history. That third home run — in the eighth inning of a game already decided — is the part worth studying.
A scoreboard does not tell you when to compete. Most hitters let a lopsided score change the texture of their at-bats. They expand the strike zone. They stop reading the pitcher. They play out the string. Goodman’s approach in the eighth was indistinguishable from his first. Same preparation. Same focus. Same result.
Catchers spend a lot of innings absorbing losses from behind the plate. You see the whole game. You feel every bad inning. The mental discipline to keep your own at-bats clean — to treat a plate appearance in the eighth like it’s the first inning of a playoff game — is exactly what separates hitters who are dangerous every night from hitters who are dangerous only when the score is close.
Sweat the gear and never fear: Goodman put in the reps, showed up for all nine innings, and the record is his. That discipline can be yours, too.
Try this at your next practice
- The Dead-Game At-Bat Drill. Near the end of a scrimmage or intrasquad game, when the score is lopsided and energy is flagging, each catcher gets a mandatory at-bat with the same pre-pitch routine they’d use in a tied game. The point: train your focus to be score-blind. Goodman’s eighth-inning swing was not an accident — it was repetition.
- Zone Discipline Scrimmage. Pitch a full count in live BP, but the catcher-hitter can only swing at pitches in a defined zone (belt to knees, over the plate). Every pitch outside that zone is a called take, regardless of score or situation. Builds the pitch-reading discipline that kept Goodman’s third at-bat as clean as his first.
- Lineup-Card Accountability. After each live at-bat in practice, the catcher writes one sentence on a lineup card: what they were looking for, and whether they got it. Builds the habit of having a plan before every pitch — the same mental routine that lets elite hitters stay sharp in innings that “don’t count.”
Sources: Hunter Goodman hits 3 home runs in Rockies’ loss to Reds (MLB.com) · MLB roundup: Rockies’ catcher Goodman hits 3 home runs, but Reds leave Colorado with victory (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) · Hunter Goodman of Colorado Rockies sets franchise mark with another 3-home run game (Purple Row) · Rockies’ Hunter Goodman enhances trade value with historic three-HR game (Yardbarker)
