Tyler Colvin Strikeout Tracker

Tyler Colvin faces Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight. Colvin has been sputtering for most of the time since his promotion last month, batting an underwhelming .173. With Dexter Fowler being placed on the disabled list, Colvin starts tonight and will surely see a lot of playing time in the future.

Considered by itself, tonight’s game is a frightening and unique situation.

Colvin. Image: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Colvin will bat 8th. Entering the game he has struck out in an astounding 34.5% of his at-bats this season. For a point of reference, Chris Carter of the Astros (36.8%) and notorious strike-out king Dan Uggla (33.7%) lead that category for those eligible in 2013 (stats courtesy of FanGraphs). Granted Colvin’s sample size is small (52 ABs), but still, one who has watched the young lefty bat knows that his all-or-nothing swing results in a lots of swings-and-misses. That fact will likely continue to bear itself out in Colvin’s strikeout statistics.

Kershaw enters the game with 118 strikeouts on the season. That’s good for a 8.75 K/9 in 17 games started. When Kershaw faces Colvin, it will be a dreaded left-on-left match-up against a guy who is currently holding left-handed hitters to a .128 average.

How shocked will you be if Colvin does not strike out three times against Kershaw?

Here are the only events that could possibly happen tonight that would be more surprising than Tyler Colvin putting the ball in play against Clayton Kershaw:

Kershaw. Image: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

1. Yasiel Puig being held hitless.
2. Roy Oswalt throwing a complete game.
3. Yorvit Torrealba throwing out a would-be base stealer.
4. Tonight being a terrible night to be at beautiful Coors Field.
5. Tracy Ringolsby wearing a backwards baseball cap.
6. Toyota Talk being awesome.
7. The Rockies having an error-free night on the bases.

Unless you are really attached to the number zero, keep your own Tyler Colvin strikeout tracker for the night. Considering the starting lineup for the Rockies, that tracker might require you to count higher than the number of runs put on the board by the home team. Let’s hope I’m wrong.