The Rockies continued their hot streak by sweeping the Yankees on Wednesday, improving to 8-2 in their last 10 games. They’re now three games out of the final wild card spot.
Over the course of the last seven days, the Rockies’ hitters have shown why they could be the most fierce lineup in all of baseball.
DJ LeMahieu is hitting .500 in the past week with four doubles and a homerun. Carlos Gonzalez is hitting .476 with two home runs and six RBIs. Trevor Story is hitting .375 with a homer and Charlie Blackmon, Nolan Arenado and Mark Reynolds are all hitting over .300, combining for another four home runs.
The whole league knows Arenado is one of the best, if not, the best third basemen in baseball — leading the NL in home runs and RBIs — and he backed that up this weekend against the Yankees, going 3-9 in the series with a homer and 4 RBIs.
LeMahieu, who more and more people need to be talking about, is hitting .323, which is good for fourth in the NL, with an OPS of .885, both of which lead the team. He continues to rake over the past month, hitting .344. He plays a stellar second base and is an integral two hitter, hitting in front of Arenado.
What about Charlie Blackmon and Mark Reynolds?
Reynolds, the journeyman who is on his seventh team in nine years, is batting .296 with only four homers. Reynolds was known as a power hitter when he played for the Diamondbacks, hitting 44 home runs in 2009 and 37 with Baltimore in 2011, but he was also known as a player who either hit homers or struck out. He had over 200 strikeouts three times in his career and came within four of 200 in 2011.
Reynolds is now making better contact and hitting for average, something the team needs.
Blackmon continues to stay hot moving his average over .300 after he went 4-9 in the series against the Yanks, and Gonzalez, a player seemingly on the trade block every season, is batting .312 with 15 home runs and 36 RBIs and an OPS of .915.
We all know how successful rookie Trevor Story has been and although he’s been striking out a lot –94 strikeouts — he has hit more home runs as a shortstop (17) than any other shortstop in the MLB. He is also tied with Xander Bogaerts, shortstop of the Boston Red Sox, for first in RBIs, with 45.
As a team, the Rockies are fourth in the MLB scoring 334 runs, second in batting average (.274), second in slugging percentage and second in OPS.
The top five hitters in their lineup, including Reynolds who usually hits seventh behind injured Gerardo Parra, have combined for 67 homers and 237 RBIs.
The 67 homers are more than eight teams have in total, more than doubling the Atlanta Braves who have 28. The 237 RBI’s are more than 13 teams have total, again, 70 more than the abysmal Braves.
“We’re in a pretty good place,” manager Walt Weiss told the media. “I feel like this team is going to get better as the year goes on.”
With the Rockies pitching woes and uncertainty coming from the starting rotation and the bullpen, the Rockies need to get better as the year goes on or, possibly, the best lineup in all of baseball will go to waste.