Colorado Rockies Pitchers Riding Historic Hot Streak

To say that the Colorado Rockies pitching staff has stepped up their game a little since the All-Star break would be a gross understatement. Before the break, the Rockies lost far too many games due to pitching. Whether it was due to a lackluster start or Colorado relievers giving up runs late in the game, too many opportunities for a win were wasted.

In fact, through the first half of the season, Colorado’s stats were not all that impressive as a pitching staff … 15th overall in the league, which isn’t awful, but also not where the Rockies need to be for consistent wins. The Rockies were at 40-48, walking a little over three hitters per game, and only striking out 7.44 batters per nine innings (which was good enough for 24th in the league for that category). There was a combined ERA of 5.07 and a WAR of 6.2.

These are not the numbers of a club that is going to win many games, and definitely not the kind of numbers that you want from a starting rotation at any level, let alone in the Majors.

But. Thankfully, there is a but in this story.

But the All-Star break changed everything for the Rockies pitchers. What it was that sparked this huge change? Your guess is as good as mine. In an article by the Denver Post, Rockies manager Walt Weiss said that the team is playing each game like it is a game 7. Maybe they just loosened up and started to have fun again. After all, that did the trick for Billy Heywood and the Minnesota Twins in the movie Little Big League. But no matter what it was, the change has showed up huge in the stat books.

In the second half, the Rockies pitching staff is fourth overall in the league, statistically. They have posted an impressive 12-5 record (best in baseball since the break), striking out 6.75 batters per 9, stranding 74.4 percent of batters on base, while posting a combined ERA of 3.26 and a WAR of 2.8.

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

While these numbers are significantly better than what the staff was putting up before the break, I don’t think it is a fair indicator of how good they have been.

There is an old adage, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” I think that this is a fair way to look at what is going on in Colorado right now. Individually, each of the pitchers is doing a marvelous job on his own and putting up great numbers. But as a unit, as a pitching staff, I think that they are pitching better than fourth in the league. They might be the best in baseball from the break up to now.

Why? Because they are giving the offense a legitimate chance to win games. And that’s really what pitchers are supposed to do. They are putting up quality starts (a lot of them, including a franchise-record 20 in July) and letting the offense do what they do best, put runs on the board.

So, will this streak continue? It’s hard to say. But it looks good at this point. After losing a close game in the series finale with the New York Mets, I was glad to see the Rockies rebound in such an emphatic way in the opener agains the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sometimes a heartbreak game such as the final one against the Mets can crush any confidence and momentum that a team has, but our squad bounced back, and put on a show in the Mile High City.

Next: Arenado Fighting Through Slump, Focused on Wins

We moved back up to 500 and are 3.5 games back from the Wild Card. Things are looking good right now for the Colorado Rockies.