Baseball is a funny game.
Mired in a 10-game losing streak, Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weiss was taken to the hospital where he underwent an appendectomy on May 13. That same night, scheduled starting pitcher Jordan Lyles lasted just one inning before a lined ball off of his hand sent him to the clubhouse for an early night.
After Christian Bergman pitched the game of his young career in relief, surrendering just one run in 5.1 innings of work, the club was felled for the 11th time in a row in the 11th inning of play.
In short, it was hopeless.
Nothing was working and it seemed that even the universe wanted the Rockies not just to lose, but to be an embarrassment.
However, in the 14 games that have followed, the Rockies have gone 7-7. They just had a three-game winning streak snapped and had won five of the previous eight games. They’ve “earned” the fans tacos six times during that span, after achieving that seven-run plateau on offense just twice in the first month and a half of the season.
And get this: They’ve done the most recent stretch without taking regular batting practice on the field before games for the better part of a week because of weather.
Besides Bergman’s efforts in the final game of the 11-game skid, the Rockies have gotten some of their pitching outings of anybody this season from David Hale, Chris Rusin and Chad Bettis (twice).
The seldom-used Daniel Descalso was called upon to give a blow to an ailing Troy Tulowitzki. He has hit .357 since May 13. Unheralded prospect Ben Paulsen was called up to replace a concussed Justin Morneau. He currently holds a .333 average while starting the last seven games… in six days.
The offensively anemic Drew Stubbs was replaced by outfielder Brandon Barnes, who was hitting all of .205 in Albuquerque for the Isotopes. All he’s done is respond by hitting the cover off the ball since being recalled. With all due respect to the spectacular play of Nolan Arenado, Barnes has also generally acted as the spark of energy that looked like it was going to elude Colorado for the rest of the 2015 season.
Make no mistake; that last sentence was the most important one.
The Colorado Rockies are playing with a tenacity that we haven’t seen since the beginning of the season, when hope was busy springing eternal and guys were making their usual claims about staying healthy and shocking the world. And it’s hard to believe that it’s a coincidence that it’s happened with a bunch of role-playing grinders in the lineup.
“It’s par for the course, the way things are going right now,” bench coach Tommy Runnells said after the long night on the 13th. “You don’t like to joke about things like that, and it’s going to be a long, long road. But you know what? We’re really proud of the way the guys battled. And if we keep battling like this, we’re going to be fine.”
It rubbed a lot of people the wrong way that the team could joke about how bad things were. It’s hard to blame them. Stars like Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez and the aforementioned Arenado should have been embarrassed about how things were going. But the urgency just didn’t seem to be there. That’s not indict any of their mindsets, no one likes to lose, but the club needed something more to break out of a funk.
They needed a Ben Paulsen who took the scenic route to the majors and is there to savor every moment. They needed a Brandon Barnes who had seen what it was like at the top and knew the value his charismatic leadership style and hard work would bring. They needed pitchers who just wanted a shot and were eager to show that they could follow the instructions they’d been getting at the minor league level.
Let’s be honest; neither Barnes nor any of the rest of these players is a major game-changer for the Rockies this season, based purely on their ability. This probably still isn’t a very good team. The fact that we talk optimistically about two weeks of .500 baseball is testament to that. But if these role players can tweak the attitude of the clubhouse just when things start to despair for the veterans, there’s still plenty of value in that role.
The Rockies have had a losing attitude for far too long. And changing that culture will be paramount to their future success. It would be naïve to pretend that this turnaround represents a serious departure from the status quo, but it’s important to note the players surrounding the stretches of good baseball by the Rockies.
As we hope for a change in the culture of the Rockies, it will first start with an attitude change in the clubhouse.
Losing is going to happen for this team. But it’s good to finally see guys that work hard enough to not get embarrassed. It lets us know that it’s not completely hopeless for the Rockies.