Colorado Rockies morning after: Flurry of pitching moves shows urgency

The Colorado Rockies suffered their sixth straight defeat on Monday night, dropping a 9-2 decision to the San Francisco Giants. During those six losses, the Rockies have given up 57 runs. That’s a clip of 9.5 runs per game.

It’s obvious that Colorado’s pitching has been a big reason for the team’s recent slide. Of course, the offense hasn’t exactly been clicking either. The Rockies have scored 17 runs over the last six games, and you’re not going to win many games with offensive production like that.

Still, Colorado has slipped back into its pre-2017 ways in the recent week. Pitching can’t stop the opposition, which means the Rockies will have to outslug a team in order to win. It’s a formula that hasn’t worked well over the last few years … or the last few games.

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Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why Colorado shook up its pitching on Monday in a big way. Antonio Senzatela, 9-3 as a starter but struggling with an 8.10 ERA in June, came out of the bullpen on Monday night for the first time in his career. Jairo Diaz, who hasn’t pitched for the Rockies since 2015, was called up from Triple-A to fill a roster spot when Tyler Anderson was forced back to the disabled list with another round of inflammation in his left knee.

Colorado even went short on its bench Monday night when reliever Chad Qualls was brought off the disabled list and outfielder Carlos Gonzalez was placed on it with a right shoulder strain. The Rockies had three players on their bench for Monday night’s game, one of the reasons why we saw pitcher Kyle Freeland get a pinch hitting appearance in the top of the fifth inning.

The Rockies even made a pitching move involving minor leaguers on Monday, grabbing southpaw Zac Rosscup from the Cubs in exchange for Matt Carasiti. While it may have been a swap involving two pitchers at the Triple-A level, it was big for the Rockies as Rosscup was added to Colorado’s 40-man roster, taking up the last available spot the team had.

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Something has to be done for the Rockies to snap out of their current funk. Perhaps it’s Nolan Arenado once again going off in the dugout and lighting an emotional fuse in the team. Perhaps it’s Colorado’s offense rediscovering its rhythm. However, none of that may matter much if Colorado’s pitching doesn’t revert back to its early-season ways. With all of Monday’s transactions, it’s apparent the Rockies are trying to do something to jumpstart that move as soon as possible.