This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding’s Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

DENVER -- Third baseman Kyle Karros, the Rockies’ No. 18 prospect, has been going hard at baseball since being selected in the sixth round of the 2023 Draft. But he’ll finally take a short break in the coming weeks to complete the work necessary to graduate from UCLA in December with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

It turns out that Karros, 22, has lived a baseball career that’s a case study in unusual game endings. When Karros drove in the run that gave High-A Spokane a 3-2 victory over Vancouver on Saturday to lock up the Northwest League championship -- which he did by being hit on the upper arm by a pitch from righty Geison Urbaez with the bases loaded -- it didn’t seem that strange.

“I know at UCLA we had a ton of walk-offs [on a] hit-by-pitch or a balk or a walk,” Karros said. “Weird stuff kept happening there. I don’t know if I have ever been the one to get hit for the win."

As odd as it may be for most, it’s fitting in a sense that Karros found the way to win it for his team.

Karros led the league in batting average (.311), on-base percentage (.390), slugging (.485) and OPS (.875). Right there with him was center fielder Cole Carrigg (Colorado’s No. 7 prospect), who slashed .280/.358/.475 with a league-leading 16 home runs (one more than Karros) and 51 stolen bases (second in the league) in 111 games with Spokane.

Listed at 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, Karros had the physical tools but was slowed because of injuries at UCLA. The Rockies, seeing similarities to his father Eric Karros -- who spent most of his 14-season career with the Dodgers -- felt there was more to Kyle than his college stats, so they drafted him.

“I've grown up a lot in this league,” Karros said. “I made it more about just enjoying showing up every day -- enjoying the good, enjoying the bad -- and just trying to learn as much as I can in my first year. And I think I accomplished that, and I had pretty damn good stats to go along with it."