Colorado Rockies’ Tyler Chatwood Saves His Best For Last

Tyler Chatwood, coming off a second Tommy John surgery, has had an interesting year. At home in 2016, he is 4-8 with a 6.12 ERA. Conversely, on the road he is 8-1 with a 1.69 ERA. Last night was another road warrior performance by Chatwood. He really did save his best for last.

Tyler Chatwood was completely dominant last night against the San Francisco Giants. Eight innings pitched, three hits, zero earned runs, two walks and nine strikeouts (102 pitches, 62 for strikes).

Chatty had good control of the strike zone, mixing in all his pitches and keeping a Giants lineup silent who had mashed the Rockies for 19 hits and 12 runs the night before.

His 1.69 road ERA is a new Rockies franchise record, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post:

"That road ERA is the lowest in the majors this season (minimum 70 innings pitched) and the lowest in Rockies history (minimum 80 innings). Colorado’s previous road ERA king was Jhoulys Chacin, who posted a 2.44 mark in 2013."

His only mistakes were a leadoff walk in the seventh and eighth innings, but he promptly got out of it by inducing double-play groundballs to the next hitters.

He mentioned on the ROOT Sports broadcast after the game that he felt stronger as the season wore along. This is very good news coming off a second major elbow surgery and should help him with his preparations for 2017.

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Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry wrote an article earlier today saying Chatwood deserves to be a top candidate for the National League Comeback Player of the Year award. This couldn’t be more true, and it is mildly surprising he is not being considered as a candidate, until you remember that Rockies pitchers and Coors Field will never get any respect from the national media for pitching performances.

Furthermore is the fact he is still only 26-years-of-age. He is likely still entering the prime of his career and he is one of the franchise’s top-two pitchers (with Jon Gray).

Next: Tyler Chatwood Deserves NL Comeback Player of the Year

The Rockies have a long way to go to be a contending team in the NL West. 2017 starts with the pitching. Tyler Chatwood will be a key cog in the rotation, and last night’s performance should give fans plenty of hope the starting pitching will be improved.