What a finish! RyMac hits walk-off slam to cap Rox home opener

DENVER -- Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon's Friday morning disposition was as sunny as the day -- 75 degrees, the warmest normal (non-2020) home opener in Rockies history.

The Rockies had won just once in a seven-game road trip to open the season. The last three were losses in wicked weather at Wrigley Field in Chicago. McMahon reached into his Coors Field locker and carefully checked the bats that had been packed in clear plastic bags, figuring one of them would change some of the mood surrounding the team.

“In my early years, I’d be freaking out, too,” McMahon said. “But I’ve been through this. I talked to ‘Chuck’ [Charlie Blackmon] and other guys who have been through it a bunch. It’s a week. It’s not how we wanted to start. We’re home now. Maybe that starts us in the right direction.”

Come late afternoon, McMahon blasted Jason Adam’s first-pitch sweeper into the right-field seats for the third walk-off grand slam in Rockies history to end a wild, 10-7 victory.

McMahon’s homer -- his first of the season, after Pete Fairbanks walked three batters and Kris Bryant struck out against Adam -- turned a day that nearly slipped through the Rockies’ fingers into a freak-out of the happiest kind.

“It could spark a good run for us,” McMahon said. “Hopefully, it does.”

Two-run homers by Ezequiel Tovar in the sixth and Bryant in the eighth helped forge a 6-2 lead. But closer Justin Lawrence gave up five hits and was charged with five runs (four earned) in 1/3 of an inning as the Rays grabbed a 7-6 lead.

McMahon nearly kept the game tied. He charged for a nice play on José Caballero’s sacrifice bunt for the second out.

He spun on his knees to stop Jose Siri’s hard grounder and fired a one-hop throw that bounced out of the webbing of Bryant’s glove.

Bryant said “of course” he should have made the play but McMahon, who received the error, called his throw a “mega-sinker.”

Rays closer Pete Fairbanks lost Jake Cave, Brendan Rodgers and Nolan Jones within 17 pitches, as all three walked.

Adam entered and fanned Bryant on three sliders. The day ended with bookend boos for Bryant -- each time he was introduced or made an out before the homer, then after the McMahon throw in the top of the ninth that he didn’t catch, and finally the strikeout.

So not only did McMahon have his strategy -- “Just based on what he did to Kris, when he threw him three really, really good ones in those shadows,” McMahon said -- he had a couple teammates to pick up.

First was Lawrence, who gave up just two hard-hit balls (95 mph or above), but said, “I definitely could have executed better.”

Then he looked at the bright side.

“It was kind of cool that McMahon was able to hit that walkoff home run,” Lawrence quipped. “I was glad I was able to put that one in his hands. I’ll have to get him dinner or something.”

Then McMahon’s homer took some of the heat off Bryant, whose .100 batting average coming in and three-year-old seven-year, $182 million contract combined to anger many populating 20th & Blake.

“That’s my guy, man,” McMahon said. “He’s being a little unfairly judged right now. This happens. If this had happened if he had been 10-for-20, nobody would be saying anything.”

McMahon’s strong start is coming from his adherence to a more controlled approach, especially with two strikes. Even the no-strike swing against Adam was designed to put the ball in play. It went into and out of play -- and let a teammate who had just been booed soak in his joy.

According to OptaStats, McMahon’s homer made the Rockies the first team in MLB history to blow a four-run lead in the top of the ninth, then win on a walk-off slam in the bottom of the frame.

McMahon’s walk-off slam was preceded in Rockies history by Ryan Spilborghs against the Giants on Aug. 24, 2009, and Blackmon on Sept. 11, 2020 against the Angels. It was McMahon’s third career walk-off homer, and also won a game on a sacrifice fly.

McMahon’s homer on Friday sent LoDo -- Denver’s Lower Downtown -- into delirium, save for one person who was in the stands: Austyn Brooke McMahon, six-week-old daughter of Ryan and Natalie.

“She was asleep,” McMahon said.

But in a way, like Daddy, like daughter.

Why freak out?