September 25, 2013: Todd Helton hits final home run as Middlebrooks, Red Sox rout Rockies

The Boston Red Sox hit nine grand slams during the 2013 regular season, five in the month of September alone.1 On September 25, the final Wednesday of the regular-season schedule, third baseman Will Middlebrooks hit the team’s fifth September grand slam. He also hit a three-run homer earlier in the game, doing enough damage all by himself to ensure a Red Sox win over the Colorado Rockies.

This game was also notable in that Colorado’s Todd Helton hit the last home run of his Hall of Fame career.

The Red Sox had clinched a playoff spot by beating the Baltimore Orioles on September 19 and won the American League East championship outright the next day with a win over the Toronto Blue Jays. There were, after that, seven games remaining on the schedule. They could relax to a degree but naturally needed to stay sharp to have a better chance to prevail in the playoffs. They split the final two games in Boston with the Blue Jays, then came to Denver to play two against the Rockies, and were due to wind up the season in Baltimore with a three-game set.

The Rockies were in last place in the National League West, coming into this game with a record of 72-86, 19½ games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers.

They had played the Red Sox in two games near the end of June and lost them both. They opened the September series by beating the Red Sox, 8-3, on September 24.

Starting for Rockies manager Walt Weiss was right-hander Jhoulys Chacín, who was 14-9 with a 3.21 ERA that was more than a run better than the team average. The Red Sox got to Chacín for three runs in the top of the first inning. In his first game back after missing three weeks with an injury, Jacoby Ellsbury singled to right and Shane Victorino followed with a successful bunt single toward third base, fielded by Chacín. Dustin Pedroia grounded into a force play at second base. David Ortiz doubled to right field and drove in Ellsbury and Pedroia. After Daniel Nava lined out to center, catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled to center, scoring Ortiz.

Pitching for manager John Farrell and the Red Sox was Jake Peavy. A Cy Young Award winner with the San Diego Padres in 2007, Peavy had been 8-4 with the Chicago White Sox in 2013 but came to Boston at the end of July, part of a three-team trade that also involved the Detroit Tigers. He was 3-1 in August but had three no-decisions in September. He set the Rockies down in order in the bottom of the first.

Chacin didn’t allow a Boston batter to reach base in the second inning. With one out in the bottom of the inning, Helton homered over the scoreboard in right field. It was the 15th home run of the season for Helton, the 369th of his career, and his fourth lifetime against Peavy.2 Before the game the Rockies had held retirement ceremonies for their 40-year-old first baseman, who had spent all 17 of his major-league seasons with Colorado and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024.3 The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham noted that after Helton’s homer, Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia had gone out to the mound to confer with Peavy (“a classy move”) so that the ovation from the fans could last longer.4

After a second out, left fielder Corey Dickerson walked and then scored from first on catcher Yorvit Torrealba’s double. It was 3-2.

The Red Sox added a run in the top of the third on a two-out single by Nava and a double to right field by Saltalamacchia,5 but the Rockies tied it with two runs in the bottom of the third. They loaded the bases with no outs on two singles and a walk. Peavy struck out Michael Cuddyer, but Helton’s sacrifice fly scored one run. Rookie third baseman Nolan Arenado hit a ground-rule double that drove in a second run. With runners on second and third, Peavy walked Dickerson, but retired Torrealba on a ball hit deep to right.

The game was tied, 4-4, but only for a few minutes. Peavy doubled to right with one out in the fourth.6 It was the first base hit by a Red Sox pitcher in 2013. Ellsbury walked. Victorino worked a full count, then hit the eighth pitch for a three-run homer into the left-field seats. It was a 7-4 Boston lead.

One harmless single was all the Rockies got off Peavy in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Rob Scahill took over pitching for Colorado. He’d worked in 22 prior games in 2013, his only decision a win in a 15-inning game six days earlier. First up was Saltalamacchia, who lined a single to center. Stephen Drew doubled up the middle. Middlebrooks – who was coming off a stretch in which he had just five hits in his last 41 at-bats (.122) – hit an opposite-field three-run homer to right field, his 16th homer of the season. It was a 10-4 game.

The Rockies got one run back when Cuddyer drew a walk and Helton doubled to left field. It was 10-5, and it was Helton’s third run batted in of his final home game at Coors Field.

The sixth inning was relatively uneventful. Drew Pomeranz took over from Scahill, saw Pedroia reach on an error but then retired the next three Red Sox. Peavy shut down the Rockies in order.

Matt Belisle pitched the seventh; he walked a pinch-hitter for Peavy but then got three outs. Junichi Tazawa was Peavy’s replacement. He gave up a one-out single to Cuddyer and gave way to Franklin Morales. Morales picked off Cuddyer, then struck out Helton. 7

In the Red Sox eighth, the two players with the longest last names on the team both drove in runs. Roy Oswalt was pitching. Victorino singled. Pedroia flied out. Brandon Snyder, who had entered the game to replace David Ortiz at first base, was hit by a pitch. Nava singled and the bases were loaded. Saltalamacchia singled to right-center, and it was 11-5. The Red Sox catcher had his third RBI of the game.

The bases remained loaded. Drew popped up to short for the second out. Middlebrooks – who already had a three-run homer in the fifth – homered over the 340-foot marker by the left-field foul pole, fair by “only a foot or so” in the words of WEEI’s Joe Castiglione.8 The grand slam made it 15-5.

There was no more scoring in the game. Craig Breslow pitched to three Rockies in the eighth, Rex Brothers pitched to four Red Sox in the top of the ninth. (Quintin Berry walked.) Ryan Dempster pitched to three Rockies in the bottom of the ninth; pinch-hitter Ryan Wheeler led off with a single but next up was center fielder Charlie Blackmon, who lined into an unassisted double play at first base. Second baseman Josh Rutledge hit a fly ball to deep left-center and the game was over.

For Middlebrooks, the seven RBIs in one game were the most of his career, though he had driven in four in his third big-league game and then five more the very next day.9

The win was significant, as the team was hoping for the best overall record in the American League, which would guarantee them home-field advantage throughout the postseason. They finished 97-65, one game better than Oakland’s 96-66, thus obtaining the edge they had sought.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and excerpts of the game on YouTube. Thanks to Jim Wohlenhaus for access to Denver newspapers.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL201309250.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2013/B09250COL2013.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXU9XZcabzM

Notes

1 The pre-September grand slams were hit by Mike Napoli on April 22 against Oakland, by Jonny Gomes on May 8 against the Minnesota Twins, by Stephen Drew on May 15 at Tampa Bay, and by Napoli (his second) on June 1 against the Yankees in New York. The September grand slams preceding this September 25 game were hit by Will Middlebrooks on September 4 against the Detroit Tigers, Mike Napoli (again at Yankee Stadium) on September 6, by Mike Carp on September 11 at Tampa Bay, and by Jarrod Saltalamacchia on September 13 against the Yankees at Fenway Park. Five grand slams in one month were said to have tied a major-league record. Peter Abraham, “Sox Win in Rout,” Boston Globe, September 26, 2013: C1.

2 Helton’s home runs against Peavy included a two-run homer in the one-game playoff between the Rockies and Padres to determine the National League’s wild-card team on October 1, 2007, won by Colorado in 13 innings.

3 For a nice summary of the occasion, see Patrick Saunders, “Helton: Gone,” Denver Post, September 26, 2013: 5B, and Troy E. Renck, “A Number of Images – First At-Bat a Highlight in Last Home, Sweet Homer of a Game,” Denver Post, September 26, 2013: 10A. Denver sportswriter Mark Kiszla reported that Peavy had told Helton he was going to throw him nothing but fastballs, and quoted Helton saying, “I think Peavy just did me a favor. He’s a good dude, and he probably just helped me out right there.” Mark Kiszla, “Baseball Gods Smile on Helton, Who Gets Assist,” Denver Post, September 26, 2013: 5B.

4 Peter Abraham, “Sox Win in Rout.”

5 It was his 39th double for the 2013 Red Sox, tying him with Carlton Fisk (1978) and Jason Varitek (1999) for the most doubles by a Red Sox catcher in a season. Peter Abraham, “Balancing Act as They Go Down to Wire,” Boston Globe, September 26, 2013: C3.

6 It was the 15th double of his career. He had one triple and two homers (both in 2008) to his credit. At career’s end, he had added two more doubles and had an overall .168 batting average with 33 RBIs.

7 Helton started at first base in the Rockies’ final three games of the 2013 season, all road games against the Dodgers, and was hitless. In addition to his 369 home runs, he retired with 2,519 hits, a .316 batting average, and a .953 OPS.

8 As included in the YouTube video excerpt noted in the Sources.

9 On May 6, 2012, he drove in four runs at Fenway Park in a 17-inning loss to the Orioles, then went with the team to Kansas City and drove in five more the very next evening. After finishing his first four games, he had three homers and nine RBIs. He had enjoyed two four-RBI games earlier in 2013: April 7 in Toronto and September 4 against the Tigers. He later had four three-RBI games.