Friday, September 25

PHOENIX – Another familiar name is on a power surge in the Rockies organization.

Jack O’Dowd hit seven home runs and drove in 25 runs in 22 games at Single-A Fresno. He celebrated a promotion to High-A Spokane by knocking two homers on Thursday night.

O’Dowd, 25, who played collegiately at Vanderbilt in 2021 and Texas from 2022-24, is son of former longtime Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd. Also, while at Fresno, O’Dowd roomed with another power-hitting player with a familiar surname -- Ethan Holliday, the fence-busting son of former Rockies All-Star Matt Holliday.

By any other name, Jack O’Dowd is stinging baseballs. But, O’Dowd took the long route to producing overnight. 

A rough start to his final year at Texas in '24 left him batting .207, and his playing time decreased as the season progressed.

He found his swing in the MLB Draft League with West Virginia, posting a .306/.377/.420 slash line. O'Dowd then signed with Billings of the independent Pioneer League last year and broke club records (dating to 1969) for home runs (22) and RBIs (91) while batting .333.

“It’s a combination of small improvements over the past couple of years -- and learning from areas that I struggled with in college, then breaking out last year and continuing to show up everyday and just put together good at-bats,” said O’Dowd, who signed a Minor League contract with the Rockies this past offseason. “I felt there was something in me that was better than what I was showing.

“I’m very grateful that I got the opportunity in independent ball to keep playing, just to try to continue to see how good I can get -- see if I can truly tap into what I thought as in there.”

O’Dowd earned a bachelor’s degree in human dimensions of organizations, though he joked: "I really just tell most people it was business, just to make it easier." But he didn't let go of the baseball dream. 

His older brother, Chris O’Dowd, is a Dartmouth graduate who played six seasons in the Minors and now serves as CEO of WIN Reality, a leader in virtual reality training of baseball and softball players at all levels.

While Jack O’Dowd’s education puts him in a position for many career paths, he is concentrating on one.

“It's easy to think about what’s next after my playing career, but I catch myself and don’t really like to go there,” he said. “I take it one day at a time and continue to believe that I can make the dream [come true]. Ever since I was a little kid, I dreamed of putting that Rockies uniform on. I’m trying to show up every day and take steps closer to making that dream come true.”

O’Dowd said getting to know Holliday has been fun.

“When Matt was with the Rockies, Jackson [Holliday, now with the Orioles] and I were buddies,” O’Dowd said. “We were always playing Wiffle ball together, hitting together. We would always see pictures from our parents of Jackson and me, and Ethan is in the back, and he’s an infant.”

The Rockies are partnering with the National Women’s Soccer League expansion Denver Summit FC for a crossover night on June 7 for the game against the Brewers at 1:10 p.m. For details, click here.

The addition of a cutter and changes to his changeup fueled a 1-1 record and a 2.30 ERA beginning to the season for Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland. But since his return from a left shoulder injury, which prevented him from making a start at San Diego on April 12, Freeland is 0-4 with a 10.32 ERA. 

The last start, at home against the Rangers, represented progress. But he yielded consecutive fourth-inning homers to Ezequiel Duran and Jake Burger, and dealt with loaded bases in the fifth before reliever Jaden Hill bailed him out by forcing a Duran grounder.

Freeland has been working with a tweaked pitch mix, and trusts that his new cutter and improved changeup will eventually yield results.

“I definitely think that everything we’re learning is going to come with some lumps and learning curves, but it’s OK to try new things,” he said. “You never know when something’s going to click. It’s happening with a handful of guys here.

“I feel confident and strong. Obviously after any injury, you’re going to be slightly hesitant in your head about something happening again. But I have 100 percent confidence in my arm and I’m feeling healthy, just wearing some lumps right now and trying to get through it.”

If not for the happy scenes of Sterlin Thompson’s ninth-inning double and Chad Stevens’ RBI single for a 3-2 victory over the Diamondbacks, the memory of Friday night’s game would have been of more frustration.

After a one-run loss to the Rangers at home on Wednesday, and numerous blown chances in a 2-1 loss at Arizona on Thursday, the Rockies squandered three chances with runners in scoring position and fewer than two outs. Also the seventh ended with Jake McCarthy grounding out with two out and two on.

Before the game, McCarthy acknowledged that the Rockies need to be better, but can’t cross the fine line into pressing.

“There’s only one way to think about it -- that it’s going to take us somewhere,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think any of us go into the everyday grind being like, ‘Here we go again.’ We are frustrated. A game like [Thursday] is extremely winnable.”

The Rockies are a building squad learning new philosophies and experiencing significant turnover from last year’s 43-119 debacle. But McCarthy, who came in an offseason trade with the Diamondbacks, is one of many Rockies new and old who don’t want to hear about being better than last year -- as if that’s good enough.

“I’m in my first year here,” McCarthy said. “We know, and are buying in that there’s no moral victory. We don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, we just hung with this good team and that’s good enough.’ That just isn’t sustainable, and I don’t think that’s a great way of going about competing.”

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