Morning after: Colorado Rockies thrashed on opening day but it was still opening day

DENVER – The beauty of Opening Day is hope. Hope for the new, hope that this year will bring something better than the last and hope that once more the warm embrace of your summer friends returns.

The Colorado Rockies retuned to LoDo on Friday and with them they brought hope. Hope that the club would reach new heights after two playoff bow-outs, hope that their new long-term franchise icon could be the first plaquered in New York and hope that this is finally the year that the Rockies best the Dodgers.

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Part of this beauty is that hope can never be extinguished on day one, but the Rockies certainly didn’t get off to the correct start. Thrashed 10-6 by the Dodgers, Colorado sent their sellout crowd home sad.

“It’s always exciting, we’re glad to be home,” Arenado said pregame. “We have a game to win, it’s an important game but it’s a crazy environment at Coors Field as it should be. This should be an exciting season.”

The last two seasons spell that this season may repeat in excitement but given the strengthening of the NL Central and East there’s more pressure on the Rockies to win the West. The team they’ll have to take it from is L.A. who has won the title six straight years and is off to a 6-2 start.

In 2018, the Rockies went just 7-13 against the Dodgers. Had just one of those games flipped in favor of the Rockies, they would’ve won their first division title.

While hope remains—as it should because no one game in baseball is too urgent during the regular season and the season is, obviously, barely underway—there is a sense that the Rockies need to do as much damage against the Dodgers as they can this year.

The sentiment pregame around the clubhouse from the Rockies related to how much they hate the LA club and how they want to get them back after losing game 163 last year.

The Rockies will have to wait for a revved up Jon Gray for revenge for tonight’s game.