Colorado Rockies: The best and worst at the season’s midway point

The Colorado Rockies completed their 81^st game of the 2017 season on Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco with a 5-3 loss to the Giants. The loss was Colorado’s eighth consecutive defeat.

Now officially at the halfway point of the season, it’s a good time to look back on the first half of the campaign and see what has gone right … and not-so-right for the Rockies.

Of course, there has been a lot more good than bad in the first half of the season, despite the tough-to-watch recent losing streak that has tumbled the Rockies out of the top two spots in the National League West. While recent games have been brutal to say the least, if you had a time machine and could go back to spring training and tell yourself the Rockies would have 47 wins at the halfway point and be in such a good position to make the postseason, you probably would have accepted those results.

And think about this … the impressive first half of the season was accomplished with Jon Gray making only three starts, David Dahl never even seeing the field and Trevor Story and Carlos Gonzalez each battling through season-long slumps. That’s an accomplishment in and of itself.

So what stands out about the first half of the season? Let’s take a look back at some of the hits and misses from the first 81 games.

The amazing moments

We’re going to tip our caps to two moments that will forever be remembered by Rockies fans that happened in the first half of the season.

First, of course, were the heroics by Nolan Arenado in a span of two games, smacking game-winning hits against the San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks in mid-June.

Colorado Rockies

There will be few moments in Rockies history that will stand out more than Arenado’s ninth-inning home run against the Giants on June 18. Not only did it give Nolan his first-ever cycle, it also completed the first-ever four-game sweep of the Giants. It also completed a four-run final frame for the Rockies that gave Colorado the win after San Francisco had scored three in the top of the ninth to take the lead.

The emotion. The blood- and dirt-caked jersey. The crowd chanting MVP. There are few more magical moments than that in Colorado baseball lore.

Nolan capped off another comeback win the very next game against Arizona, smacking a two-run eighth-inning triple to push the Rockies to 47-26 on the season. Again, the feeling inside Coors Field that night was electric.

The second biggest moment of the season came when Chad Bettis made his return from chemotherapy to rejoin the Rockies. While Bettis has yet to see action, his ability to be a part of the team and take steps every day to get closer to a return to the mound has been an emotional boost to Colorado.

His “return to Coors Field” press conference provided tears and goose bumps. When he steps back on the mound in a regular season game later this year, the emotion surrounding it will make it a must-watch event.

#TogetherForBettis has been a rallying cry this season for the Rockies and every day, we’re one day closer to watching a cancer survivor return to the thing he loves to do, play baseball.

The disappointments

Certainly, Colorado’s recent play has been one of the biggest disappointments of the season. A team that has performed so well all season saw the wheels come off on the mound and at the plate during one of the worst possible times. With the Los Angeles Dodgers playing some of their best baseball of the season, Colorado’s slide has caused a big-time slide down the standings.

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As mentioned earlier, CarGo and Trevor Story have yet to find their rhythm at the plate. Both have had outstanding moments in the field but can’t seem to get over the hump on offense.

Ian Desmond has also struggled in his first season with the Rockies. A spring training injury kept him out of the lineup until April 30. His offensive WAR of -0.5 (heading into Wednesday) is the worst of his career and seemingly can’t get any air under the baseball as he leads Major League Baseball in hitting ground balls.

While the back end of the bullpen has been terrific (we’re looking at you, Greg Holland), getting to the ninth inning unscathed has been a challenge. The bridge between the starting pitcher and Holland has to be upgraded at the trade deadline. There are simply too many arms in the bullpen who can’t be trusted night in and night out for the Rockies to be a legitimate threat to make it all the way through October.