Colorado Rockies morning after: Big win exposes big need for Rockies

There was plenty of joy after some tense moments for the Colorado Rockies following their 10-9 walkoff win against the San Francisco Giants at Coors Field on Thursday night.

Staked to a 9-1 lead after six innings, the Rockies found a way to win a game that would have eluded them in years past. Now 10-2 in one-run games and winners of six straight against the Giants for the first time in franchise history, all was well in LoDo as the crowd spilled out of the stadium after an almost four-hour game.

However, masked by all of the joy of the victory, there is a bit of a concern. Colorado’s bullpen reverted to its old ways on Thursday night. That’s something that simply can’t happen as this team continues to fight every night for supremacy in the National League West.

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When you’re playing in arguably the toughest division in baseball, there is little room for error. However, we’ve seen plenty of that in the game’s later innings from Colorado’s bullpen over the past three games.

Tuesday night at PNC Park, Adam Ottavino and Jordan Lyles both gave up homers in the seventh inning or later of Pittsburgh’s 5-2 win over the Rockies. Pittsburgh’s late-inning surge ensured Colorado would lose its first road series of the season.

Flash forward to Thursday night and read the box score. Colorado’s bullpen gave up a combined seven runs in the seventh and eighth innings including home runs surrendered by three different Colorado relievers during that stretch. Scott Oberg and Mike Dunn both saw their overall ERA creep over 5.80 thanks to long balls hit by the Giants.

Even Jake McGee and Greg Holland, who have been stellar this season, were touched for runs late by the Giants. We knew Holland was going to blow a save sometime this season. It finally happened on June 15. While it was tough to watch Thursday night, many Rockies fans would have guessed much earlier if you had asked them to predict a date before the season began.

During Thursday night’s game, an article came out that discussed 10 trade deadline needs by various Major League teams. For some reason, the Rockies weren’t listed as one of the 10 teams. However, Thursday night showed once again that Colorado needs another piece in its bullpen to make it dependable night after night. A trade for another bullpen arm is becoming more and more of a must.

The Rockies are going to need to figure out a way to pick up a reliable bullpen arm who can get the game to Holland in the ninth inning with little or no drama. McGee, Ottavino (who has been solid despite the blip against the Pirates) and Chris Rusin can’t pitch every night. Other than those three, would you put the game into another Rockies reliever’s hands with confidence right now?

Next: 5 guarantees for the rest of Colorado's season

By no means am I saying the sky is falling in Denver. It’s not. The joy on Nolan Arenado’s face (check out this screenshot) after Raimel Tapia’s walkoff single on Thursday night proves that. However, the last three games have exposed a weakness in Colorado’s armor. With the Dodgers and Diamondbacks right on Colorado’s heels in the race for the division crown, it’s a weakness that needs to be shored up as soon as possible.