The Colorado Rockies have quite suddenly, and to the surprise of most of the baseball world, rattled off a couple of weeks of pretty good baseball.
In the five series they have most recently played, the team that many expected to be the worst in baseball – and who played to those expectations to start the season – have only truly been outplayed in one of them.
They got pretty thoroughly swept by the Giants in San Francisco but did some sweeping of their own against the defending champion Texas Rangers and the perpetually failing-to-launch San Diego Padres.
It seemed clear cut that the seven-game win streak was a bit random when it so conclusively came to an end, especially considering the club couldn’t manage a series win against the also-lowly Oakland (for now) Athletics.
But a return home to Coors Field brought with it some of the best baseball the boys in purple have played in some time, nearly sweeping MLB’s best. If not for a handful of fairly epic bullpen collapses, the Rockies might well have swept four of their last five sets.
What does it mean?
On a small scale, it means that they are getting a good stretch of starting pitching. Now at six consecutive quality starts for the staff, they’ve been led most of the season by consistently strong performances by Austin Gomber and Cal Quantrill.
After Quantrill’s series-clinching outing on Sunday afternoon against the Phillies, he chose to do a bit of looking forward. “I think we are building a bright future here,” he said, “and I think a series like this shows what we are capable of.”
When asked about such a potential bright future after the same game manager Bud Black showed his usual optimism but also chose to note the reality that several parts of the team are still “under construction.”
For a team that has often balked at publicly acknowledging a “rebuild” this was a telling moment.
Black also referred to the “Jekyll and Hyde” nature of the bullpen of late, something that can and even already has been a bit of a momentum killer.
With a team full of players in their first and second years of MLB and more on the way, it’s natural to expect the ups and down both on an individual and team level.
We’ve experienced the gamut already with Jordan Beck who made an exciting debut, fell into a bit of a slump, showed the ability to make adjustments and started to make some very exciting plays…and then he got hurt.
The baseball season is a rollercoaster ride.
There are still a lot of unknowns on this team. Right now the biggest one is who to call on after the starter has done his job.
For those hyper focused on the big picture, it is probably still the best case scenario that this team lose enough games not only to get another high draft pick but to make sure they are sellers at the trade deadline where they should have several opportunities to move some veterans to boost the farm.
Of course, the current leader in the clubhouse in most categories, Ryan McMahon, isn’t thinking about any of that. Echoing sentiments heard around the room, he’s taking heart in the Rockies recent winning ways despite where they are in the standings.
“I know our record doesn’t make us look like some great team,” he says. “But there’s a lot of good players on this team and there’s a lot of season left so who knows what could happen?”