Albuquerque Isotopes do something the Colorado Rockies never have

DENVER—On Sunday, the Albuquerque Isotopes defeated the Tacoma Rainiers 23-2.

You read that right 23…. a franchise mark for the Isotopes.

Rockies catching prospect Dom Nunez hit three home runs and drove in six runs in the contest. He hit a two-run shot in the first, a three-run jack in the third and a solo bomb in the eighth. Meanwhile Roberto Ramos went yard, doubled two times and singled as he drove in a franchise mark for a single game eight.

Top pitching prospect Peter Lambert was the pitcher of record for the Isotopes while the Rainiers staff—the Triple-A affiliate of the Mariners—had a not-so-fun Easter Sunday.

26-year-old Robinson Leyer had a good day at least as his two innings pitched were the only ones where the Isotopes didn’t get on base, let alone score.

You could say it was a day to forget except that’s probably not going to happen for the Rainiers.

In Denver, Rockies catcher and former Mariner Chris Iannetta remarked as he tried to recount the most runs he’s seen in a game, “it’s like a bad beat in poker, you remember the ones you came up short but I don’t remember the most runs scored by my team in a game.”

As best as we could find, Iannetta personal high was a 20-run output by the Rockies that just so happens to be the highest scoring game in franchise history.

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

The Rockies beat the Giants 20-8 on Sept. 18, 2006 at Coors Field. Justin Hampson picked up the win for the Rockies and Noah Lowry the loss as he allowed nine in one and one-thirds innings of work. A very young Brian Wilson and a very old Steve Kline pitched the only clean innings for San Fran.

Iannetta batted eighth as Jeff Baker knocked in six on two home runs and Garrett Atkins drove in another six.

Current Iannetta teammates Seunghwan Oh and Antonio Senzatela echoed Iannetta’s thoughts in not being able to remember the most runs they’ve seen in a game. But that didn’t stop Bud Black from eventually taking a stab at it.

“I don’t know… well you know I don’t remember 1975 American Legion Longview American Legion Post 151, we scored 26,” Black said laughing. “There was a 10-run rule but we scored a bunch I can’t remember professionally though.”

Professionally the modern MLB-record is 30 in a game scored by Texas in 2007, while the MLB record itself was set in 1897 as the Cubs plated 36.

Anyway, the ‘Topes scored just about as many runs as you can score in a game on Sunday. And that’s pretty cool even if everyone will eventually forget about it.