Colorado Rockies: Wish list for the Washington/Pittsburgh road trip
By Nick Bunney
The Wish List
Keep Building Offensive Momentum
The Rockies averaged less than three runs per game for the first five games of their inaugural homestand in 2018. Even factoring in the six runs scored Wednesday in the win over San Diego, a hair over three runs per game at home will not cut it. I always remind myself when the offense is struggling that nobody wishes they were hitting better more than the players, so let’s not overreact here. That said, I would love to see the Rockies continue not only hitting the long ball, but stringing together base hits here and there as well.
After the brawl on Sunday, I saw fire and aggression in the offense for the first time perhaps all season. It came with a cost, however. It looks like the Rockies will likely be missing some combination of Charlie Blackmon, Nolan Arenado, Gerardo Parra and German Marquez throughout this road trip. That means it’s time for the rest of the lineup and the role players to pick up some slack and continue the momentum they created on Sunday against the Padres.
Steady the Rotation’s Rocking Boat
Going by the eyeball test this year, I couldn’t seem to remember a game where the starter wasn’t either lights-out good, or get-him-out-now bad. After looking into it, I found that opponents are averaging seven runs per game in Colorado’s losses and less than 2.5 runs per game in their wins. I’m not saying the Rockies should split that down the middle every night, but they need to keep the opponents run total down, especially early on in games, to give the still-sputtering offense some time to come around.
Take the East Coast Media to Class
It’s no secret if you’ve read some of my work or know me personally, that I’m no fan of how mainstream national media treats the Rockies when it comes to awards and recognition. I was stunned that neither Charlie nor Nolan were even in the top three of NL MVP voting in 2017. Ever since, I have been waiting for these types of road trips.
Washington and Pittsburgh are certainly not baseball market giants, but the two cities are large media markets in general and I would bet most of them haven’t seen a lot of the Rockies, the only team in the Mountain time zone. Assuming Chuck Nazty gets healthy and Nolan staves off suspension for a few more days with an appeal, I would love the Rockies, and those two in particular, to show the East Coast media that the Rockies can hit the ball out of YOUR yard too.