Colorado Rockies vs. Los Angeles Dodgers: How important is this series?

The Colorado Rockies have been flat out disappointing up to this point in the season. A team expected to make the postseason, the Rockies find themselves at 39-42, and fourth in the division. They have blown a record number of games, and have struggled to compete in one of the weaker divisions in baseball.

It gets worse when you see a team like the Los Angeles Dodgers starting to get hot. If they are behind in the division now, it’s hard to see them outplaying a team like that when they are playing as good as they are. Luckily for Rockies fans, the 2018 version of the Blake Street Bombers are still somehow only eight games out of first, and 4.5 games out of a wild card spot. With a few months of baseball left, it’s not too late for the Rockies to steal a spot in the postseason … which is exactly why this series coming up on Friday is so important.

What is at stake:

The Rockies are only 4.5 games behind the Dodgers. Something as short as a three game series has the potential to move them to within a game and a half, or drop them all the way to 7.5 games down. In other words, a really good performance can put the Rockies right back into the running for the division, while losing the series can basically put them right out of contention.

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This series can also change the mentality of both teams. I get its only three games, but if the Rockies were to come away 3-0 over the weekend, they could completely diminish the Dodgers confidence. Suddenly, instead of being a hot team that can’t be stopped, they now have the feeling of a team that just got stomped on their own home field. It could destroy all their momentum, which could really change things in the long run.

Best case scenario:

Right now, the Rockies and Dodgers both haven’t released their probable pitchers. However, the Rockies pitchers are all relatively similar as far as performance goes. Luckily for us, everybody seems to pitch better on the road. The best we can hope for is the starters to pitch seven solid innings. Then the bullpen does its job and hold their offense to five runs or less every game. If Clayton Kershaw pitches any games, the Rockies will need an elite performance and give up no more than 3 runs.

Then players like Nolan Arenado and DJ LeMahieu need to stay hot and put up crooked numbers like they have been the last few weeks. Of course the offense playing well is a plus, but the key to this series is keeping the Dodgers off the board as much as possible and limiting big innings.

Worst case scenario:

Jon Gray won’t be pitching in this series, which is good. As good as Gray is, he is horrible at limiting damage, as we saw in Thursday’s win in San Francisco. The Dodgers are elite at punishing teams and taking advantage of mistakes. If the worst happens, whoever is pitching will struggle to throw strikes, the defense will struggle, and the Dodgers will do what they do best.

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If that happens, it doesn’t matter how good or bad the offense does. Los Angeles is elite at putting up double-digit runs, and chances are the Rockies won’t win a 13-12 or 11-10 contest, especially if Kershaw is on the mound. In order to have a chance in this series, the pitching needs to keep the runs down. The worst thing that could happen to the Rockies is giving up a big inning.