Like Wile E. Coyote rocketing off a cartoon cliff, the Colorado Rockies have gone from flying high atop the NL West to holding a hand-painted “Help” sign right before they plummet into the chasm below.
The staggering ineptitude of the Rockies’ offense continued on Tuesday in a 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers that saw young hurler Kyle Freeland go toe-to-toe with future Hall-of-Famer Clayton Kershaw. Freeland pitched 6-2/3 innings of two-run ball, pitching through early wildness to keep the Rockies in the game. Kershaw was no better, throwing seven innings and allowing two runs (one earned) while walking five batters.
The Rockies’ pop-gun offense, however, had no answer for Kershaw, just like it had no answer for Hyun-Jin Ryu the night before, or Giants starters Chris Stratton and Madison Bumgarner, who both led the way in shutouts earlier in the road trip.
Losers of four of five games, the Rockies’ 4-for-33 (.121) night has the team batting a pathetic 26-for-157 (.166) on the road trip thus far.
In truth, the Rockies are lucky they’ve even won one. The flailing and foundering club will finish their series with the Dodgers on Wednesday night in a nationally-televised game. Now 1-1/2 games back of the Dodgers, the Rockies must win to stay with reach; a loss will put them 2-1/2 back with only 10 games to go in the season. Moreover, their skid has dropped them out of wild-card position, 1-1/2 games back of the St. Louis Cardinals.
If the Rockies don’t want to be scoreboard-watching, tonight’s the night – starter Tyler Anderson needs not only an excellent pitching performance, but the backing of an offense that can at least approach the Mendoza line.
Fail, and the Rockies become likely to go from one of their finest regular seasons to one of the most disappointing in their history.
