Rockies Formula to Win Games Emerging After Successful Homestand

Tomoyuki Sugano had a big bounce-back performance as he led the Colorado Rockies to an 8-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday.

Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer admired what he saw from his veteran. Sugano has been a standout for this Colorado rotation in April.

Schaeffer Wants Pitching To Repeat Consistently

Colorado Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

It’s a different position than where the Rockies were through 25 games last season compared to this season. The Rockies are 10-15. Last season, they were 4-21. Pitching and good, timely hitting have been the key difference.

Sugano, 36, was once an MVP-caliber pitcher in Japan. He still has what it takes to pitch a good game. When he impacts the game as he did against the Padres, it sets a great example for the rest of the young pitchers on the team.

The Padres only got one run and five hits off Sugano. Throughout the time he was out there, he was never under pressure or ran into any problems. He tossed five impressive innings. It’s a different attitude from the Padres series when they were on the road. But at Coors Field, everything turned out to be great. The team is now 7-5 at Coors Field.

The skipper wants this kind of performance more often, not to be one of these teams that go streaky. It can irritate fans when it’s one win today, one loss tomorrow, one win the following day, and another loss the day after. Schaeffer wants to see a winning streak and for the pitchers to continue to dominate the strike zone.

“That's baseball. It's spitting on the balls and offering at balls in the zone,” Schaeffer said to reporters in comments captured by Guerilla Sports. “And that's what we did tonight, and it was good, and we need to do it again tomorrow.”

"That's baseball. It's spitting on the balls and offering at balls in the zone. And that's what we did tonight and it was good and we need to do it again tomorrow"

🗣️ Warren Schaeffer#Rockies | @TheSuzieHunter

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— Guerilla Sports (@guerillasports) April 23, 2026

Sugano is now 2-1 on the season with a 3.42 ERA, 19 strikeouts, and a 1.14 WHIP. We don’t expect Sugano to become a lethal strikeout machine, but at least keep the ERA down and force hitters to ground out and hit sacrifice flies. He’s enjoying the environment in the clubhouse and praises the pregame meeting.

“I think the pregame meeting went really well and the game kinda progressed accordingly, so I think that's the reason why we won,” Sugano said through a translator.

🗣️ Tomoyuki Sugano

"I think the pregame meeting went really well and the game kinda progressed accordingly so I think that's the reason why we won"#Rockies | @TheSuzieHunter

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— Guerilla Sports (@guerillasports) April 23, 2026

The veteran pitcher got some help from his offense. Run support is key. Hunter Goodman went 3-for-4 with a home run and two doubles. We are seeing a confident group that, when they start hitting, is hard to put down. Anytime the Rockies lineup scores more than five runs and three hits, then the pitcher from the opposite side is in trouble.

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