Ezequiel

Tovar

Tovar joins Matt Wallner, teammate Willi Castro and Kyle Schwarber with five-strikeout games this year. Give this one some extra credit, though, as the rest of the Rockies combined to go 10-for-30 with five extra-base hits, 10 walks and just six strikeouts in scoring nine runs against the Angels. Tovar is hitting .216/.267/.328 in 221 plate appearances and might benefit from a Triple-A stint if it would do anything to encourage him to show even a tiny bit of discipline at the plate.

Tovar homered in the eighth to get the Rockies to within a run at 4-3. The 24-year-old gave the Rockies the win and also improved his homer total to four with a two-run blast off Caleb Kilian that completed the comeback win for Colorado, as the Rockies entered that inning trailing 6-3. Tovar has struggled for most of the year, but he’s homered three times this week, and he’s shown the ability — in spurts anyway — to be a fantasy factor.

A rare appearance from Tovar’s bat this season. The 24-year-old has long displayed some of the game’s worst plate discipline, but his contact this year has been weaker than usual, even though one would think he’d be getting a little stronger as he approaches what should be his peak years. The homer was his second in 195 plate appearances. Two years ago, he hit 26 in 695 plate appearances.

They can only drop him one spot further. Tovar opened the season batting cleanup for Colorado and also hit second and third on occasion, but he hit seventh for the first time on Friday and eighth for the first time Sunday. The 24-year-old is still chasing every pitch he sees and batting .193/.228/.294 through 114 plate appearances. There’s no giving up on him for the long haul, but the Rockies could consider sending him down for a spell to try to motivate him to show even a modicum of discipline at the plate.

Well, he made contact against Mason Miller. That’s not nothing. Tovar is batting .204/.245/.323 in 98 plate appearances. Statcast thinks he’s been unlucky not to hit closer to his career averages, but it’s not like his career averages are anything special. Tovar was a quality player as a 22-year-old sophomore in 2024, but he took a major step backwards last season and hasn’t shown any signs of rebounding. It’s really disappointing, especially for a Rockies team committed to him through 2030.

It appears to be nothing more than a routine night off for the 24-year-old shortstop. Utilityman extraordinaire Willi Castro will cover the position in his stead and bat sixth for the Rockies against Randy Vasquez and the Padres.

Of course they did. The Rockies were up 2-1 through five before erupting for seven runs in the sixth. They then piled on with five runs off catcher Tyler Heineman in the final two innings. Tovar is used to mostly batting first and second for the Rockies, but he’s opened the season in the cleanup spot, which really makes more sense given his total absence of plate discipline. His three hits all left his bat in excess of 101 mph, and his double off Heineman in the eighth would have been a homer in nine ballparks.

Tovar’s only hit of the day left the yard and put two runs on the board for Colorado as he took Eury Pérez deep in the fourth inning. The 24-year-old shortstop is a prime bounce-back candidate after missing nearly half the season to injury in 2025. Hits in each of his first two games, including the home run on the road, is a good start.

Suárez was one of Venezuela’s heroes during Monday’s comeback win over Italy to reach the WBC final, launching a solo homer off starter Aaron Nola to jump-start a four-run outburst. He’ll get the nod at DH after appearing in just four of the six games for Venezuela to this point in the tournament. Here’s the full lineup: Ronald Acuña Jr. (RF), Maikel Garcia (3B), Luis Arraez (1B), Suárez (DH), Gleyber Torres (2B), Ezequiel Tovar (SS), Wilyer Abreu (LF), Salvador Perez (C) and Jackson Chourio (CF).

Tovar clobbered a three-run jack to center off an otherwise-excellent Trevor McDonald to get the Rockies to within a pair at 5-3. He also singled to push his slash to .256/.299/.402 with two games left to play. Tovar’s season has been lackluster, but he’s not the reason the Rockies fell to 74 games under .500 Friday.