Gomber shows signs of returning to his old self in strong start

WASHINGTON -- Austin Gomber deserved to leap and clap his hands as he finished off his seven innings on Tuesday night in Colorado's 3-1 victory over Washington at Nationals Park.

Gomber struck out five and held the Nationals to three hits. The only one that hurt was CJ Abrams' leadoff homer in the sixth, but Gomber responded by retiring the final six hitters he faced.

In May, Gomber pitched to a minuscule 0.68 ERA before struggling to a 9.39 in June. The final number ERA in July was 5.27, but gradually, Gomber returned to his old self. He has given up three or fewer runs in three of his four August starts, and he has gone seven frames in two of those three.

“Every starting pitcher wants to be as consistent as possible -- take the game into the sixth or seventh inning every start,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “They want to amass innings, and ‘Gomby’ has done a pretty good job all year. There have been a couple hiccups here and there, but for the most part, he’s stayed healthy and maintained his stuff.”

And September awaits. In two of the past three seasons, Gomber didn’t pitch in September because of back problems, and in ‘22, he finished September/October mostly in relief. But there is no sign of pain, and all kinds of indications that Gomber is finding maturity and quality -- and helping fuel the Rockies’ optimism that they can have a rotation of competitive pitchers in 2025.

“Obviously, it’s mid-to-late August, so other than the normal fatigue, I feel physically strong,” Gomber said. “I can still go out there, compete [and] make pitches. I’m where I want to be right now, but we’ve still got a stretch of games left.

“I’ve changed little things about my between-starts routine -- what I’m doing in the weight room, what kind of running I’m doing -- just monitoring my workload a little better. I’m putting myself in the best position to compete every fifth day. It’s something I haven’t been able to do for 162 as a starter, so that’s still a goal.”

A clear sign of Gomber -- supported by two hits apiece from Brenton Doyle and Ryan McMahon -- putting things together came immediately after the homer.

Since he arrived in the early 2021 trade that sent third baseman Nolan Arenado to the Cardinals, Gomber has flashed a knuckle curve that at times has been dominant. This year, Gomber has increased the usage of that pitch.

Gomber entered Tuesday using it 21.6 percent of the time, according to Statcast. But on Tuesday, he used it on 28 of his 96 pitches, or slightly over 29 percent of the time. After the Abrams homer, he used his changeup and fastball to build a 1-2 count against Andrés Chaparro, then made him swing over a nasty knuckle curve.

“We were just missing balls -- a few chases,” Abrams said. “He was throwing a lot of curveballs offspeed. We were swinging at his pitch [and] getting soft contact. We had good swings, just no timely hit swings.”

Pitching against a lineup properly comes with experience, but Gomber credited his least-experienced teammate – catcher Drew Romo, the Rockies’ No. 9 MLB Pipeline prospect, who was in his second Major League game. Romo, who had caught Gomber in Spring Training, said his use of a high-low/fastball-curve combination was a result of “reading their swings, paying attention to what they were trying to do and trusting our instincts.”

Gomber said Romo led him in the right direction.

“We went over the scouting report just like I would with anybody else ... ” Gomber said. “He’s here for a reason, so I’m not going to control what he does. He did a good job. It’s the first time he’s caught me, so I told him to call what he thinks. I have the button out there if I disagree. He did a really good job.”

After Tyler Kinley pitched a scoreless eighth, Angel Chivilli came in for the ninth. Victor Vodnik had been warming up in the bullpen to come in for the ninth, but reported right shoulder discomfort while warming up, so Black turned to Chivilli.

Chivilli pitched in low-leverage situations during his first three callups from Double-A Hartford, but he was sent to Triple-A Albuquerque the third time he was sent down, and has been used mostly in tight situations since being recalled on July 30. After earning his first MLB win on Sunday, he pitched around a walk and a hit for his first save against the Nationals.