Colorado Rockies: 3 Things We Liked in the Arizona Series

With the Colorado Rockies’ 4-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday afternoon, the Rockies not only won the season-opening series, but also ensured they will take a 2-1 record and a lot of excitement into Friday’s home opener against the San Diego Padres.

Colorado gave its fans plenty of reasons for anticipation during the three-game series. It also raised a few question marks for the rest of the season … but we’ll tackle those another day. With that in mind, here are three things that we liked from the first series of the season.

Tomorrow, during a day off for the Rockies, we’ll give you three things we didn’t like about what we saw in Arizona.

Things We Liked

Trevor Story — OK, like you didn’t know that was going to be first on the list, right? Story became (here comes the pun) a story in and of himself over the weekend by becoming the first player in Major League Baseball history to blast home runs in his first three games. Forget any butterflies the rookie might have had about starting his first MLB game or taking over the spot that Troy Tulowitzki held down for so many years. Story looked like a seasoned veteran in Arizona, taking both Zach Greinke and Shelby Miller, the Diamondbacks’ two biggest acquisitions in the offseason, deep.

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And it wasn’t just at the plate where Story excelled. The 23-year-old shortstop was flawless in the field and showed he is ready to start the next chapter of the Coors Shield legacy for the Colorado Rockies.

If we bet on nothing else on Friday, we’ll put our money down on Story hearing the loudest ovation of the entire team when his name is announced on Opening Day at Coors Field.

Boone Logan — Last season, Logan was part of a vilified Colorado Rockies bullpen that finished dead last in MLB with a 4.70 ERA. The southpaw was 0-3 with zero saves in four opportunities that helped balloon his individual ERA to 4.33. As bad as 2015 might’ve been, it was actually an improvement over 2014 where he posted a 6.84 ERA in 25 innings of work. This year, in spring training, despite battling a sore elbow, Logan said 2016 would be different. So far, his prediction is spot on.

In two games in Arizona, Logan threw a flawless 2.1 innings in two appearances, striking out three. Known as always being effective against left-handed hitters, Logan dominated against both sides of the plate against the Diamondbacks. Ironically, he was used in both Rockies’ wins but didn’t see the field in Colorado’s loss.

Tyler Chatwood — Coming off his second Tommy John surgery, Chatwood was somewhat of a mystery in spring training thanks to limited pitch counts and high levels of caution exercised by Colorado Rockies management. Still, he pieced together a 3.00 ERA in 12 innings to give hope to a rotation that needed hope heading into the season.

Next: Colorado Rockies: Pitching Problematic in Loss to D-backs

Any questions heading into the season about Chatwood or how he might respond coming back from the injury were answered on Wednesday against Arizona. The 26-year-old right-hander was stellar, allowing just one earned run in 6.1 innings of work to earn his first victory in almost two years.