Outman Going for First Pitcher to Record 100 Losses in a Season

Rockies 3, Cardinals 9

That headline has a typo. It’s really the Rockies who are in jeopardy of losing 100 games this season. They’re on pace to do it, too: with 80 games in the books, they’ve lost 49 of them. If they lose tonight, that’s 5o in 81, which translates to 100 in 162 if this ship doesn’t right itself. But if that does happen, won’t it seem as though all the starting pitchers have singlehandedly lost 100 games each?

Josh Outman. What can be said at this point? Of all the regression the pitching staff has shown this season, Outman might be the most regressed. He seems to get worse every time he goes to the mound. The only good news for him last night was that he didn’t make it into the 4th inning, so he didn’t have to take the loss. And in his 3 innings, he threw 70 pitches, so he would have been out by then anyway.

What’s going wrong with him? In a word, command, which is a problem for so many I’m seriously and legitimately concerned about the coaching situation. This long ago ceased to be funny. Now it’s just alarming. This franchise is going into the tank if we can’t find someone who can coach the way Apodaca did 4 and 5 years ago. Maybe our pitching coaches will be like our aces in that the altitude creates so much wear and tear on them physically that we can’t hold on to them for more than a few years. I’m okay with that. Just, somebody fix the problem.

Outman was all over the place last night, and in 3 innings he walked 5 and threw 2 wild pitches. One of those led to a run scoring, because Jon Jay took 2nd, then stole 3rd and scored on a sacrifice fly. At that point Outman still hadn’t even allowed a hit; Jay reached on a walk. That’s not the kind of no-hitter you want to see, because it means the pitcher just can’t find the strike zone. And Outman definitely could not. He only allowed 2 runs (the other a homer by Matt Holliday, naturally), but to churn through that many pitches in only a few innings is the real problem here. You’re out, man. (Come on guys, it had to be said.)

It’s absolutely pitiful at this point that no matter who we bring up, we can’t keep more than 4 starters rotating at one time. Jeremy Guthrie returns during this series out of pure desperation, and if we send Outman down we’re back to 4. Another option is Tyler Chatwood, but he doesn’t inspire confidence anymore than anyone else. In 2 1/3 innings last night he allowed 5 runs, 4 earned. It’s enough to make me want to stand up in the bleachers and yell, “CAN I GET A PITCHER, NOT A GLASS OF WATER?” Or maybe, “CAN I GET SOME DEFENSE, NOT SOME D-BROKEN PIECES OF WOOD THAT DON’T KEEP ANYBODY OUT?”

I don’t want to talk about anybody else. No on else did anything worth mentioning except, as usual, Tyler Colvin, who drove in 2 of the Rockies’ 3 runs with a homer. Oh, and maybe Kyle Lohse, the Cards’ starting pitcher, who allowed only those 2 runs in 7 1/3 innings pitched and also worked an 11-pitch at-bat off Outman that resulted in – yep – a walk. How much would it cost to bring Lohse to Coors and see how bad we can screw him up?

This series has just started, kids. Jeff Francis goes tonight at Busch.