Colorado Rockies End Season With Loss: 3 Things to Know

The Colorado Rockies wrapped up the 2016 campaign on Sunday afternoon with a 6-4 extra-inning loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. On a sun-drenched afternoon in LoDo, a 10^th-inning two-run homer from Andrew Susac would prove to be the difference and cement Colorado’s final mark of 75-87.

The season also wrapped up with two Rockies as Major League Baseball leaders. Nolan Arenado completed the 2016 campaign with 133 RBI and tied for the National League home run lead with Milwaukee’s Chris Carter at 41 round-trippers. It marked the second consecutive season Arenado had finished in a tie for the home run lead after knotting Bryce Harper last year with 42.

Arenado finished 2016 with a 2-for-4 day to raise his average to .294.

DJ LeMahieu never saw the field on Sunday, ensuring he would finish as MLB’s batting king. Colorado’s All-Star second baseman ended the season with a .348 average, just ahead of Washington’s Daniel Murphy, who finished with a .347 mark.

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Here are three things that stood out on Sunday…

Chuck was plain Nazty in the finale

Charlie Blackmon has had an incredible 2016 season. He finished it off in fine style on Sunday.

Blackmon went 4-for-5 at the plate with a pair of RBI. Part of his day was leading off the game with a homer. It’s become a common occurrence for Blackmon this season. His 10 leadoff home runs are the most by a Major League player since Alfonso Soriano hit 12 to lead off a game in 2007. It’s his third consecutive year setting the single-season franchise record for leadoff home runs. He hit five in 2014, six in 2015 and 10 in 2016.

He ended the season with a .324 average and 82 RBI. He’s the eighth player in National League history to record 80 RBI from the leadoff position.

A strong start from Marquez

German Marquez certainly continued to make his case for his place in the 2017 Rockies rotation on Sunday. In another strong outing, Marquez scattered six hits over six innings and struck out seven. Equally important, he only walked one Milwaukee batter.

Marquez was shelled in his last outing against San Francisco, but came back strong on Sunday, dropping his rookie season ERA to 5.23. Two solid starts sandwich the one bad performance against the Giants, certainly something that could be considered part of the learning curve.

It sets up an intriguing thought for the 2017 bullpen. Tyler Anderson, Tyler Chatwood and Jon Gray are certainly key parts of the rotation. Chad Bettis has shined enough this season to ensure his name is in the mix as well. Has what Marquez has done in late September and October merit him in line for the fifth starter spot? It will be interesting to see the rotation battle in spring training, considering Jeff Hoffman and Marquez seem more than able to fill a spot.

More trouble for the Wild Thing

Carlos Estevez continued his rough stretch on the mound, surrendering a two-run homer in the eighth inning to Domingo Santana that handed the Brewers a 4-3 edge.

It continued a disturbing trend for Estevez, who had a 10.00 ERA in August and 5.14 ERA in September. It was also the second homer he’s surrendered in his last five appearances.

Next: The Top 5 Second Basemen in Colorado History

Estevez should be an important part of Colorado’s bullpen in 2017. However, he’ll have to revert back to the reliever we saw in July (1.80 ERA, seven saves in seven opportunities) rather than what we’ve seen in recent outings.