The Rockies are on fire — enjoying their second-best month ever in July, going 17-6 — and credit is definitely due to the team’s starting pitchers.

Over the last 25 starts, Colorado’s starters have gone 12-2 with a 2.74 ERA per MLB Stat of the Day:

When the season began, everything was on its head historically. The Rockies couldn’t hit to save their lives, but the starting pitching — and even the bullpen — were solid. Then, the hitting started coming around and the pitching faltered in June, as the team went 11-16 and looked to be dead in the water.

But, now they’ve got everything going at once. There’s timely hitting, solid defense all-around, and the starting pitching has been as good or better than we’ve ever seen in Colorado over the last 25 games.

Kyle Freeland (9-6) pitches today against the St. Louis Cardinals in an attempt to earn his 10th win of the season. His 4.7 WAR makes him not only the Rockies best pitcher, but best player, period, even higher than Nolan Arenado. Freeland’s 3.13 ERA and 1.232 WHIP are both the best on the team, as well; he’s arguably the Rockies’ ace.

Behind Freeland, Tyler Anderson’s 3.69 ERA is also very good, and Jon Gray’s really bounced back after a trip down to Triple-A. Gray has gone seven-plus innings in his last three starts, including the dominant win last night, and his 136 strikeouts are easily the most on the team, with German Marquez’s 120 being second.

Speaking of Marquez, he’s gone 4-0 over his last five starts, with a no-decision thrown in there. All that winning has helped him pull over .500 on the season at 9-8.

The Rockies are pitching remarkably as of late, and the rest of the team isn’t letting those performances go to waste. Colorado has won 20 of their last 26 games, improving from 7.5 games back to a mere 0.5 games back of the NL West lead.

The purple and black are in contention thanks, a great deal, to their starting pitchers.