Just one game after the All-Star break, it’s getting devilishly close to worry-time in the Mile High city for the Colorado Rockies.
Even though the Rockies are only five games back of the Diamondbacks in the NL West, things could get a whole lot worse in the next couple weeks for the Rockies. At 46-51, the Rockies seem a lot worse than that record would portray, especially in a weak division.
With the Dodgers coming on in the last couple weeks before the All-Star break and likely to continue that trend in the second half, and with the DBacks leading, a couple of things have to change for the Rockies if they want to stay in the race.
Unlike last year, where the starting pitching would never give the hitters a chance to get back in games, the roles have switched places in 2013. Unlike last year where the Rockies team ERA was a whopping 5.22, it’s ‘improved’ to 4.19 so far in 2013. But when it comes to coming through for your pitching staff, the Rockies haven’t done as well so far. Even though the team is nearly identical statistically on offense as they were at this time last year, the runs just haven’t come in when the Rockies need them the most.
This year, the likes of Chacin, De La Rosa, and Chatwood have had their good share of wasted outings between them. In low scoring 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 games, the offense just hasn’t come through in the late innings to get the starting pitchers off the hook and get the victories. When you’re five games under .500, there’s issues to be fixed, but I can’t believe my eyes that offense is one of the issues we’d be discussing in July of 2013 after the abysmal season the Rockies pitching had last season.
Hopefully the offense can find magic in a bottle in the last nine games of this home-stand against the Cubs, Marlins, and Brewers to stay in contention. Especially when they will endure a tough stretch after this home-stand with 23 of the following 26 games coming on the road.
Anthony Rodriguez
Anthony is the Founder, Administrator, Editor and Publisher of Lightning Rod Sports. Originally from California, Anthony has been raised in the Rocky Mountains and Denver area for most of his life. Anthony works with the Emmy-winning student-run T.V. newscast at MSU Denver, The Met Report, as the Assistant General Manager, formerly the Sports Producer, as well as Lead Anchor and Production Assistant. He is currently the Play-by-Play Announcer, Color Commentator, and Production Assistant for the Metro State Broadcast Network, and calls games for Metro State soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball as a “Voice of the Roadrunners.” In addition to that work with the Metro State Broadcast Network, Anthony also hosts the monthly 30-minute magazine show called "The Roadrunner Review" which airs on Altitude Sports and Entertainment. He hosts the bi-weekly "KMet Sports Show" on KMET Radio at MyMetMedia.com/KMETSportsShow. He is also the Founder, Administrator, Editor, and Columnist for his own Denver Sports website, LightningRodSports.com. Anthony is also part of the Social Media team at Examiner.com, and has worked with the Altitude Radio Network for the Avalanche and Nuggets. Anthony is a former Producer for Mile High Sports Radio, as well as a former Sports-Talk show host on the LightningRod Radio Network.
