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Holliday led the NL with a .480 batting average and 10 RBI, while homering twice with an .880 slugging percentage and .519 on-base percentage. He hit the game-tying home run against New York Mets closer Billy Wagner in the bottom of the ninth inning on May 23, then the game-winning single off Aaron Heilman in the bottom of the 13th to drive in Jonathan Herrera. Two days later, the Rockies placed Holliday on the 15-day DL due to a strained left hamstring, and reactivated him on June 10. Holliday was selected to Team USA for the 2006 World Baseball Classic prior to the start of the MLB season. Despite batting just .255 through May 1, 2006, Holliday accumulated 24 RBI in 25 games.
On August 7, 2006, Bonds smashed a baseball 465 feet off of Chad Billingsley. Nevertheless, the wind was there to help Holliday whether he wanted it to or not. You're destined to gain an edge over your friends with advice from the award-winning FBT crew. Holliday’s solo shot broke a scoreless tie in what had been a fantastic pitching duel. The blast drove Rockies fans into a frenzy, and it woke up Colorado’s bat.
Holliday’s road back to the Rockies
After spending most of the off-season on the trade market with the Rockies, Holliday was again a frequent subject of rumors during the spring. The Athletics failed to get off to a strong start and it was unlikely the club would have been able to re-sign him over the course of the season or if he would have had become a free agent following the season. He also got off a slow start as minor injuries hampered him while playing in Oakland. His first home run of the season came on the last day of April against the Texas Rangers. He batted .240 in April, and, from May 11 until the St. Louis Cardinals acquired him, improved to .316, .420 on-base percentage and .489 slugging percentage over 65 games. Reaching base five times in a May 17 loss to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park, he scored his first four-hit game and stolen base of the season.
He was in better health for the NLCS against Milwaukee, batting .435 with 10 hits, six runs scored, five RBI and a home run. The Cardinals defeated the Brewers, advancing to the World Series against the Texas Rangers. Holliday was injured again in Game 6 on a play diving into third base where catcher Mike Napoli and third baseman Adrián Beltré had picked him off, and the injury also kept him out of Game 7.
League Rankings
He singled in Jon Jay to drive in the 1,000th run of his career on June 17 at Busch Stadium against Washington, the 277th player in MLB history to do so. While batting against Dan Haren of the Dodgers on July 19, Holliday hit his 400th career double and hit a 435 feet home run for his 1,000th run scored. The Rockies assigned Holliday to their Triple-A affiliate, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, at the outset of the 2004 season, intending for him to spend much of the season there. Injuries to outfielders Preston Wilson and Larry Walker expedited his progress to the Major Leagues after just six games with Colorado Springs.
Just one memorable moonshot in a cavalcade of others in September 2006 for Matt Holliday that meant much more to the fans and teammates at Dodger Stadium. Matt Holliday delivered his first Rockies home run since 2008 in nostalgic and dramatic fashion. After all, Holliday was the author of several memorable moments in Rockies history, especially during their remarkable run to the World Series in 2007. August 23, 2018 Colorado Rockies selected the contract of LF Matt Holliday from Albuquerque Isotopes.
Postseason Batting
Because of his hitting abilities and strength, he has sometimes been called the "Stillwater Stinger". With Coors Field absolutely losing its mind, Hoffman intentionally walked Todd Helton, putting runners on the corners with no one out for infielder Jamey Carroll. Carroll jumped on the first pitch he saw, hitting a line drive directly at Giles in right. Holliday -- at 6-foot-4, 240 pounds, not exactly the swiftest guy on the bases -- tagged up, looking to come home with the winning run and send the Rockies to the NLDS for the first time since 1995. That’s in reference to the controversial final play of the 2007 NL Wild-Card Tiebreaker Game. Holliday was ruled safe at home on Jamey Carroll’s walk-off sacrifice fly, but the debate has raged on for over a decade over whether Holliday ever really touched home plate.
He garnered copious attention for the Most Valuable Player award throughout the season, which increased even more that September. The Colorado Rockies selected Holliday in the seventh round of the 1998 MLB draft from high school in Oklahoma, where he also starred as a highly touted quarterback prospect. He debuted in MLB in 2004, becoming the Rockies' starting left fielder and a middle of the lineup presence. In 2006, he became the 19th player ever to reach 195 hits, 30 home runs, 45 doubles, 115 runs and 110 runs batted in in one season. In the first of four consecutive NLCS appearances starting in 2011, he batted .435 with a .652 slugging percentage in the 2011 NLCS on his way to winning his first World Series ring with the Cardinals.
Matt Holliday slugs three-run home run in Game 1 win
The Rockies traded Walker to the Cardinals in August, clearing more outfield playing opportunities for Holliday. A sprained elbow while diving for a ball against the San Diego Padres on September 12 ended his season. His final batting line included a .290 batting average in 121 games, with 31 doubles, 14 home runs, 57 RBI, 65 runs scored, 48 extra-base hits, .349 on-base percentage, .488 slugging percentage, and 195 total bases. He finished in the top five among NL rookies in each of those categories.
Fittingly, the Rockies paid tribute to the most memorable of those moments before Saturday’s game, showing Holliday sporting “I Touched Home” on his supposed Players Weekend jersey. The 38-year-old outfielder had gone unsigned until landing the Rockies minor-league deal on July 28. He was brought in to see if he had enough left to provide some much-needed thump off Colorado’s bench.
This would launch them into the National League Division Series, and then the National League Championship Series, and then even the World Series, where the Red Sox would halt their title aspirations in a mere four games. ST. LOUIS—In no other sport than baseball can an end be so finite as a last at-bat. There’s a pitch, and maybe there’s a swing, or a look, or—in the case of Matt Holliday on Friday night as the rain rolled into St. Louis—there’s a perfect, magic parabola of a hit, plop into the right-field bullpen. It's telling that no Padre, player or coach, made much of an effort to argue the call in the immediate aftermath -- neither manager Bud Black nor Barrett himself second-guessed McLelland, on the field or in postgame interviews. Orsillo and Simpson didn't start questioning it until they saw the replays.
He played 72 games on the season after undergoing elbow surgery in July ended his season. The contract to which Holliday and the Cardinals agreed before the 2010 season was widely viewed as a great success. Over its first five seasons, he averaged 147 games per season, .295 batting average, .383 OBP and .496 SLG for a 141 OPS+; his counting stats average included 24 home runs, 93 RBI, and 92 runs scored. Since being acquired from Oakland, Holliday ranked fifth in MLB in RBI, doubles, and runs scored, ninth in extra-base hits, and 14th in OPS. After returning from the DL, Holliday's first home run was a grand slam on July 21 against Carlos Rodon of the Chicago White Sox in an 8–5 win, his sixth career grand slam. He reinjured the right quadriceps on July 30, prompting the club to retract him to the DL.
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