Colorado Rockies' Jorge De La Rosa Is As Good As Ever

Jun 13, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; Colorado Rockies starting pitcher J. De La Rosa (29) congratulated by team in dugout after he scored a run during the third inning against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports

Jorge De La Rosa missed the first few weeks of the season for the Colorado Rockies dealing with an injury — but you’d never know it watching him pitch recently.

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He’s baaa-aaaack!

The Colorado Rockies are counting on Jorge De La Rosa a lot, putting a rotation around him that consists of young guys (Chad Bettis, David Hale, Eddie Butler, and maybe Jon Gray), journeymen (Chris Rusin), and, um, yeah (Kyle Kendrick).

To say De La Rosa is the Rockies’ ace is, well, obvious. But it’s not simple enough for non-Rockies followers to disparage him with the tired well, being the ace on the Rockies’ staff is relative, man.

Sure, in some past seasons in Rockies history that’s true, but not in the few since De La Rosa has been around. It’s well-documented how good he is at Coors Field, how good he is in day games, and how well he’s done for the Rockies (just the franchise all-time wins leader, no big deal).

After dealing with a groin injury at the start of Spring Training, and missing a few weeks of the season, De La Rosa’s first foray into 2015 was bad. In his first four starts this year, De La Rosa threw only sixteen total innings, and allowed 23 hits, 11 walks, and 17 runs (that’s a 9.56 ERA and a 2.13 WHIP — pretty brutal).

But De La Rosa figured out his rhythm to become the Jorge of old again. In his last five starts heading into Friday night, De La Rosa had allowed just nine earned runs in 31.2 innings, holding opponents to 19 hits and 13 walks (that’s a 2.56 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP — pretty dominant).

Batters are hitting below .180 against him in those five starts, too, and De La Rosa has racked up 26 strikeouts over those outings.

It’s fun to watch the best starting pitcher in Rockies’ history, but it’s also doubly important for the team. To put it bluntly, there have been times in recent Rockies history where it felt like De La Rosa’s starts every fifth day were the only real games the Rockies had a shot to win, suffering four bad games every turn only to get back to consistent, reliable De La Rosa again a few days later.

Considering the recent skid the Rockies find themselves in, it feels like this is another one of those times.

Aces, though, are stoppers; aces end losing streaks and give their clubs seven innings of two run ball or better — something De La Rosa has done three times in his last five starts. Not coincidentally, the Rockies have won all five of those games.

The Rockies are building for the future, and you should be excited about guys like Eddie Butler, Jon Gray, Kyle Freeland, Tyler Anderson, and the assortment of position players coming, in addition to young regulars like Nolan Arenado, DJ LeMahieu, and Corey Dickerson. The youth movement is almost here.

That being said, De La Rosa’s veteran presence is a breath of fresh air in a starting rotation that has otherwise become a mashup of blah. It’s refreshing to see the Rockies’ ace back in business; at least something is going as it should.

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Colorado Rockies’ Jorge De La Rosa Is As Good As Ever

By Bobby DeMuro | Jun 19, 2015

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