As the club approaches the All-Star break, the Colorado Rockies have won seven-of-eight ball games and now sit 3.5 games behind Arizona for the division lead. A big reason the Rockies have been able to catch fire has been the dominant performance of the starting rotation.
Including Friday night’s 7-1 victory over Seattle, the Rockies starting pitchers have posted a 1.15 ERA over the last seven games. During that seven-game stretch, the starters have totalled 47 innings pitched and given up only six runs.
The Rockies pitchers have pitched well on the road all season, as they currently own a 3.97 team ERA in games played away from Coors Field.
That trend continued with German Marquez Friday night, who after tossing six innings of one run baseball, now has six quality starts in nine road appearances and has a 2.62 road ERA. The club as a whole is 27-21 on the road. Home games have been a different story for the Rockies though.
Colorado is just 18-22 at 20th and Blake Street in 2018 and the team has a home ERA of 5.78.
The Rockies have given up 42 total more hits at Coors Field which is not surprising, given the design of the outfield, but what has been particularly concerning has been the amount of extra-base hits given up at home. The Rockies have been tagged for 156 extra-base hits at Coors Field (86 doubles, 12 triples, 58 home runs), compared to 126 on the road (64 doubles, 15 triples, 47 home runs).
There is room for optimism though, as the Rockies gave up only three runs and 14 hits in the most recent sweep over San Francisco at home. The club desperately will need that kind of dominant pitching in the six-game home stand proceeding the All-Star break.
However, the Rockies must first take care of business in the final two games at Seattle. The Rockies and Mariners will square at 2:10 pm MT. Kyle Freeland will take the mound for the Rockies and will look to get the victory over Seattle’s James Paxton. Freeland is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA over his last three starts.
