Colorado Rockies: Previewing Series Versus the Milwaukee Brewers

The Colorado Rockies play their final series of the season starting tonight against the Milwaukee Brewers at Coors Field. The team currently stands at 74-85 and have lost eight of their last 10 games. The Brewers stand at 71-88 and are only 30-48 on the road. Can the Rockies finish a disappointing September (but overall a hopeful 2016) on a high?

Beginning the month, the Rockies had an outside chance of claiming the second Wild Card berth. However, the team has swooned and through today is a putrid 10-16 this month. The batting has been hit-and-miss and the bullpen has continued to be a problem.

There is not much to achieve in this series other than pride and trying to gain some momentum going into the 2017 season. Chad Bettis and Tyler Anderson will look to finish their seasons on a high and we will get one more look at rookie German Marquez on Sunday, which will be another likely audition for a rotation spot in 2017.

Bettis (13-8, 4.92 ERA) goes tonight versus the Brewers’ Brent Suter (2-1, 2.16 ERA). He is 7-2 with a 4.72 ERA at home this season. In his previous home start against the Brewers on June 20, 2015, he pitched 6 ⅓ innings while allowing one run on five hits in Colorado’s 5-1 victory.

Tomorrow night will be Anderson (5-6, 3.54 ERA) versus the Brewers’ Wily Peralta (7-11, 5.10 ERA) and Sunday afternoon will feature Marquez (1-1, 6.14 ERA) versus the Brewers’ Jimmy Nelson (8-16, 4.62 ERA).

The main interest for Rockies fans will be to see if second baseman DJ LeMahieu can win the National League batting title. He was “rested” last night to help his cause and we will have to wait and see how much he plays in this series. As of today, he sits at .349 versus the Washington Nationals’ Daniel Murphy at .347.

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Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry argues that LeMahieu should play in this series, as all Rockies fans deserve this. In a season full of disappointment, it would be nice to see him win the NL batting title. It would indeed be sweeter to win it outright on the field, but the risk is real of losing it with a poor series by pressing for hits. This has been a career year for him and there is no guarantee he will ever be in this position again.

Risk versus reward.

Furthermore, the Rockies have been good at home in 2016 (41-37). If they can sweep this series and win 77 games, this would be the first time to hit this mark since the 2010 season (83 wins). This season has shown a lot of promise from the younger brigade on the team and they will be better off for the major league experience they have gained.

Next: Colorado Rockies Countdown: Top Five Third Basemen

This series may be the last for manager Walt Weiss, who is out-of-contract after the season. Weiss’ status is still in limbo and it will be interesting to see the interest level and overall play by the Rockies players in these last three games. It could be telling in determining Weiss’ future.

Or perhaps management have already made their decision…