Colorado Rockies: series preview against the Diamondbacks

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DENVER, CO – AUGUST 15: Starting pitcher Kyle Freeland #31 of the Colorado Rockies delivers to home plate during the first inning against the Atlanta Braves at Coors Field on August 15, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) /

The Colorado Rockies are half way through their road trip that many of us thought would be the most difficult stretch of their season. However, they went into Los Angeles to face the Dodgers and they swept them in Dodger Stadium for the first time since 1993.

The Rockies will head to Arizona to have a very important four-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Even though they won 13 straight games heading into this past Friday, they lost two of three to the San Diego Padres.

Here are some things to pay attention to in this upcoming series.

Probable Starting Pitchers

For the Rockies on Monday night, they will have rookie left-hander Kyle Freeland on the mound. He is 11-10 with a 3.99 ERA in 27 games (26 starts). In his last three starts, however, he has not pitched well as he has a 6.75 ERA in that span and batters are hitting .400 against him. In his two September starts, he hasn’t lasted longer than four innings in those starts. Against the D’Backs this year, Freeland is 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA in two starts.

For the D’Backs, they will have their ace, Zack Greinke, on the mound. He is 16-6 with a 3.01 ERA in 28 starts on the season. His 16 wins are tied for the MLB lead. He has done particularly well at Chase Field this year as he is 13-1 with a 2.31 ERA in 16 starts there this season. Against the Rockies, he is 2-1 with a 3.62 ERA in four starts this season. He has been dominate in his past three starts as he is 2-0 with a 1.83 ERA and a .217 opponent batting average in that span.

DENVER, CO – AUGUST 05: Starting pitcher Jon Gray #35 of the Colorado Rockies throws in the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Coors Field on August 5, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /

On Tuesday, the Rockies will have Jon Gray on the mound. He is 7-4 with a 4.07 ERA in 16 starts. He has been excellent recently as he hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a starts since July 19. In that span, in nine starts, he has an ERA of 2.82. In his past three starts, he has an ERA of 2.12.

Taijuan Walker will be the probable starter for the D’Backs. He is 9-7 with a 3.33 ERA in 24 starts. In his past four starts, he has only allowed two runs so his ERA is 0.79 and his opponent batting average is .217 in that span.

On Wednesday, the Rockies will have German Marquez on the mound. He has struggled a bit more recently as he is 0-1 with a 4.96 ERA in his past three starts. Batters are hitting .284 off him in that span.

He’ll be facing Patrick Corbin. From August 12 through September 2, he went 5-0 in five starts with a 0.50 ERA with a .165 opponent batting average (and one of those starts was against the Rockies). However, he was rocked by the Padres (of all teams) this past Friday. He only went 4 1/3 innings giving up 11 hits and eight runs.

On Thursday, Chad Bettis will be going for the Rox. He has not done well in his past three starts as he has an ERA of 6.46 and a opponent batting average of .281 in that span. None of those three starts have been longer than 5 1/3 innings either.

He’ll face Zack Godley. In his two September starts against the Rockies and Padres, he has gone a minimum of six innings with a 2.08 ERA and a .159 batting average.

DENVER, CO – AUGUST 01: Nolan Arenado #28 of the Colorado Rockies celebrates after driving in the game winning run in the ninth inning against the New York Mets at Coors Field on August 1, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /

More from Rox Pile

In their 13 game winning streak, the D’Backs averaged 6.2 runs per game. However, in their most recent series against the Padres, their averaged runs scored nearly dropped a full run to 5.3.

For their pitching staff, during their streak, they had a 1.91 ERA. However against the Padres (who have the worst offense in baseball as they are last or second to last in baseball in nearly every category), they had an ERA of 6.33 in their three game series.

In 14 games from August 19 to September 3, the Rockies went 4-10. They only had an offensive slash line of .241/.326/.381 in that span and they only averaged 3.4 runs. On the pitching front, they had a 4.73 in that span.

However, since September 4, the Rockies have won six of seven and in that span, they have an offensive slashline of .292/.366/.500 with an average of 6.3 runs per game. Their pitching has a 3.71 in this span. If you exclude their only loss, their ERA is a sparkling 2.83.

Final Thoughts

The Rockies are on a roll and even though they will be facing some tough starters in the series, they faced tough starters against the Dodgers and they swept them. The offense and pitching are both running on all cylinders and that will be a key for the series against the Diamondbacks.

If they sweep the Diamondbacks, the Rockies would only be one game back of them for the first wild card so it is not out of the cards yet. Also, if that happens, it would be the first time that the Rockies would go 8-0 on a road trip. The only similar stretch was in June of 2009 when the Rockies finished an eleven game road trip with eight straight wins (after three losses to the Astros). The streak was from June 4 through June 14.

Next: There are some comparisons between the 1995 and 2017 Rockies

You can’t expect a sweep but this series is very important for the Rockies and if they do well, I would just about ready to punch their ticket to the wild card game

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The Colorado Rockies are half way through their road trip that many of us thought would be the most difficult stretch of their season. However, they went into Los Angeles to face the Dodgers and they swept them in Dodger Stadium for the first time since 1993.

Probable Starting Pitchers

More from Rox Pile

Final Thoughts

Schedule