Colorado Rockies Opening Night: Five Things We Learned

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The Colorado Rockies took the field on Monday night. Yes, we can all take that long, sweet, collective sigh of relief. The greatest day of the year has finally arrived.

Your Colorado Rockies have officially opened their 2016 campaign. Monday night’s game in Phoenix marked the eighth time in history the “boys in purple” have faced off against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Opening Day. According to Baseball Almanac, with Colorado’s 10-5 win, they are now winning that Opening Day matchup 5-3 after the longest nine-inning game in Diamondbacks’ history and just over four hours. In fact, the Rockies are now 15-9 all-time on Opening Day.

And do you know the greatest thing about Opening Day? It’s baseball’s reset button, and here’s what we learned about the Rockies in the Opening Night victory.

1. A Rockies’ Rock-Star is Born Overnight

In easily the most exciting moment of the night, rookie Trevor Story took heralded Arizona pitcher Zach Greinke deep for a three-run home run. With one swing of the bat, we have officially moved into a new era in Colorado Rockies baseball. Oh, and by the way, it was his first major league hit. Story then followed it up with his second major league hit … which was a home run … off Greinke. Giving the starting shortstop job to a rookie was the boldest move the front office has made since, well, since they shipped the old shortstop to Canada.

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Story became the first player in Major League history to hit two home runs in an Opening Day debut, going 2-for-6 with four RBI. The Story move didn’t go without some criticism either as critics didn’t understand why the Rockies wouldn’t just wait a few weeks before calling him up. Waiting would have guaranteed the club one more year of control over Story. Story proved on Monday night he is the real deal, and the front office made the right move on this one.

2. The Rockies Will Score in Bunches

Thanks to a six-run third inning, Colorado chased one of the game’s best pitchers after just four innings. Hitting on the road has historically been an issue for the Rockies, but 2016 has a chance to be different. The lineup Walt Weiss and the front office has put together has the potential to hit for power and average. Every starting position player, including the starting pitcher (Jorge De La Rosa) had at least one hit tonight. An unsung hero of the night is Gerardo Parra, who hit three doubles in his Colorado Rockies debut. Nolan Arenado also picked up were he left off last season by blasting an eighth-inning, three-run shot to seal up a close game.

We knew they’d score runs, but expect a lot of big innings this year; hopefully you’ll see it consistently, and not just at Coors Field.

3. CarGo Avoids Slow Start

Carlos Gonzalez’s first half of 2015 was pretty ugly by all accounts. Cargo hit only. 259 with 13 home runs before the All-Star break. The second half of 2015, however, was a different story.

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CarGo exploded to mash a monstrous 27 home runs after the All-Star break. The question coming into Opening Night was which CarGo would we see. Following the excitement of Story’s first career bomb, Gonzalez was able to focus in and hit an absolute laser off Greinke for his first homer of 2016. If you catch a replay, you’ll notice the ball never gets more than 15 feet off the ground and is gone in under 4 seconds. That’s a absolute laser, folks. CarGo would add a hit in the eighth inning to sure up his first multi-hit game of 2016, so he appears locked in and poised to avoid the awful start that plagued his 2015 campaign.

4. Starting Pitching Has to Grind

Jorge De La Rosa was the right guy to start game #1, although it wasn’t pretty. De La Rosa didn’t have all that spectacular of a spring, so there was a case that maybe Chad Bettis should be the guy to start Opening Night. De La Rosa’s experience ended up tipping the scales in his favor … and for good reason. De La Rosa knows how to grind out starts better than anyone.

Blessed with a big lead, De La Rosa knew all he needed to do was be better than Greinke and, to his credit, he was … but not by much at all. De La Rosa only lasted 4.2 innings, giving up eight hits and five earned runs. If it’s any consolation, De La Rosa did strike out eight in his time on the mound. If Opening Night is any indication, buckle in for another long season as the Rockies are going to have to win a lot of shoot outs to have any chance in October.

5. The Bullpen Will Hold Games

If anyone would say that the Rockies’ front office had a goal this offseason, they would tell you that the goal was to bolster the bullpen. Justin Miller was first up out of the bullpen this season. Miller would deliver the single biggest pitch of the night when he was able to garner a strikeout in a two-out, bases-loaded situation in the fifth with Colorado holding on to a 7-5 lead. Miller then started the sixth by allowing two consecutive hits before Nolan Arenado bailed out Colorado with a spectacular unassisted double play.

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Boone Logan was the next man up and came on to start off the seventh inning. Boone left a lot to be desired after posting a 5.37 ERA over the past two seasons, but he worked very effectively tonight as he pitched a 1-2-3 seventh and then retired the first batters of the eighth. The bullpen didn’t have to pitch another stressful inning once Arenado put the game away, but we have to be pleased with their effectiveness tonight.

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