The Colorado Rockies are in need of wins this week

The Colorado Rockies are currently in second place in the NL West. If the season were to end today, they’d be tied for the second Wild Card spot. As of now, they are in good standing and have a strong contention percentage. Also, they are going down the right path though they really do need the all the wins they can get. That starts with the games this week.

The Colorado Rockies will be finishing out their seven away games with the Pittsburgh Pirates today. Then, they start the weekend off at home against the Cubs. This is a good break from the NL West teams as the Rockies have been playing the Padres quite a lot. They finished strong against the Nationals taking three of the four games and they’ll be looking to take all three against Pittsburgh.

As the Colorado Rockies season got started, we all expected them to be on the same path as division rival Arizona Diamondbacks, who are currently 12-4. They are 2.5 games back of the D’Backs, but the season is still very young. There are many factors that have gone into the eight losses, I showcase those factors here. The way the team plays during the losing games really shows serious cracks.

These cracks truly show the mistakes that are continuously being made. They can’t continue to happen if the Rockies really want to make it to the postseason let alone the World Series. The gears appear to be going and things seem to be getting back to normal for the Colorado Rockies, even though Nolan Arenado has been out the past few games due to his suspension.

Not too long ago, the Rockies bats weren’t really doing that much though, as of now, they’ve appeared to have woken up. In the series in D.C. they had 22 hits in the span of four games. That’s not too bad and they also scored 15 runs in the series. They only have had 12 hits in the two games with the Pirates thus far but they’ve scored eight runs to the Pirates’ two. It’s a pretty good start for two weeks of away games. This also gets the home crowed fired up to see the winning team as they come back home.

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There are essentially two things that are seriously helping the Colorado Rockies win thus far. The first one is the super bullpen. I was a skeptic at first, but they are really holding down the fort. You never want your starters to burn out so quickly, but it’s extremely reassuring when you have a bullpen like the Rockies do. They have an ERA of 3.59 entering Wednesday (it was 4.40 last year). Adam Ottavino has the lowest ERA on the team (0.84) and has 22 strikeouts in only 10 2/3 innings worked (or an average of 18.6 per nine innings) while only walking one. The ironic thing is this man has been on the time for quite sometime and isn’t one of the new additions.

Secondly, the other benefiting factor would be the bats. They’re starting to wake up and it’s looking pretty good. As usual, Charlie Blackmon is leading the pack, and without Nolan Arenado out right now, it’s prime time for guys to step up while he’s out with his five game suspension.

The Rockies are currently 9-2 in the last 11 road games. This is how it should be for a team like this. In order to keep the same pace and surpass the Diamondbacks, the Colorado Rockies have got to keep playing good baseball like this. As long as the bats continue to stay where they are and the starters continue to gain innings over their starts, this team will surely peak out ahead in the NL West. With the current sign of the times in that division, they’ll be a top tier team this season no doubt.

Next: Rockies lineup construction when Nolan Arenado returns

As long as this team keeps on winning, I see the Colorado Rockies being serious contenders this season.