St. Louis Cardinals vs Colorado Rockies – Series Preview

Jun 6, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; The Colorado Rockies players celebrate after their game against the Miami Marlins at Coors Field. The Rockies won 10-5. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

SERIES KEYS FOR THE ROCKIES

Can the club win a home series?

The Rockies enter the mid-week meeting with the Cardinals having not yet won a home series all season long. This week is probably not the most likely place for the Rockies to expect to take two out of three games, or dare we say sweep one of the strongest clubs in baseball.

Not for nothing, Chad Bettis and Jorge De La Rosa both provide the opportunity to win every time they start (well, at least this season for Bettis, and for De La Rosa, at least based on his home track record). You’d think, then, that the Rox could have a fighting chance and — haha, no, no, this is going to be an uphill battle against three very good Cardinals’ pitchers.

Time for the Rockies’ best three arms to shine

Ironically, David Hale and Chad Bettis have arguably been the two best hurlers for the Rockies this year, despite only recently ascending to the big leagues (and for Hale, only doing so – twice – as the 26th man on a doubleheader day).

Nevertheless, both have thrown strikes, worked deep into games, and give the Rockies a chance to win their outings.

Now, the club is going to need much, much more of that, as they will face the National League’s best team, with very little margin for error.

Hale and Bettis – and De La Rosa, still ostensibly the ace simply because of his track record and past ability – need to keep the Rox close enough to a very tough St. Louis team who is going to throw three very tough pitchers at the Rockies in Denver.

Can it happen? Will the Rox stay in all three games, at least putting themselves in the position to win one, or even two? Or will the pitching staff implode while the bats disappear, allowing the Cardinals to leave town with three straight victories in tow?

The road only gets tougher from here

The next 11 games are going to be pretty tough for the Rockies; these three against St. Louis, followed by four on the road in Miami against a Marlins team that just won two out of three here in Denver, followed by two road and two home games against the surprisingly strong Houston Astros.

The Rockies worked hard to overcome a very bad two weeks recently, and crawled back to a not-respectable-but-not-absolutely-awful 25-30 record heading into Monday night’s game; what to make of this club if they drop seven, eight, or nine of these next eleven games before finally seeing the Brewers in Denver for a series after this stretch?

Remember the records on this one, and look back before the game on Friday, June 19 against the Brewers: the Rockies are currently 25-30 — eleven games from now, what will their record be?

Next: Let's Meet The St. Louis Cardinals