Colorado Rockies: Time for them to go away

The Colorado Rockies currently have a 23-20 record in the NL West division. This puts them 2 games behind first place, which is held by the Arizona Diamondbacks. This also puts them as the only other team along with the Dbacks playing over .500 in the NL West. If you looked at the Wild Card standings, they’re in 7th place. Hypothetically, speaking the Rockies wouldn’t be able to contend if the season ended today…which is why they have to go away.

Whatever do you mean, you may ask. Well, the Colorado Rockies are playing and winning a whole lot more when they’re on the road than when they’re at home. Now, I know that’s a disappointing thing to hear for Rockies fans as they want to see them prevail at Coors, but they haven’t done it a lot this season. Looking at their home road spilts via ESPN, the Rockies are 7-11 at home and 15-8 on the road. Now, it’s not a big margin but it does make a difference when we take a deeper look.

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The Colorado Rockies have scored 87 runs on the road and only 78 at home. The one thing you can really look at in the home vs. away stats are the home runs. The Rockies have 53 home runs in total with 20 of them happening at Coors and 33 homers on the away games. The offense is a totally different team once they head out on road trips and it’s most likely how they’re able to stay in second place. However, as soon as they get home, the struggle at Coors begins.

Even when it comes to pitching those guys are almost two different people. Looking at the current splits, not only do they have more strikeouts but also a lower ERA. The Rockies pitching staff have 191 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.35 compared to their 162 strikeouts and high team ERA of 5.65. Also, at home they walk 3.57 batters per nine innings while walking 3.46 batters per nine innings on the road.

You see guys like Chad Bettis, Tyler Anderson, and occasionally Jon Gray are pitching in more innings away than at home. This, in part, has given the Colorado Rockies pitching staff a higher win percentage away which is .652 compared to the home percentage of .375.

Next: Looking at the 2018 roller coaster season

The Colorado Rockies can play good baseball at home sometimes. They play better baseball whenever they’re on the road. It’s almost as if you’re watching a totally different team during road trips. However, if the Rockies want to win the division they must also play their home games just like the away ones. In order to do that they have to channel the same team that’s been winning on the road.