Colorado Rockies morning after: A pair of alarming early trends

The back end of the rotation

Chad Bettis will get the start on Sunday night against the Dodgers on Colorado’s first Sunday Night Baseball broadcast from Coors Field since 2001. On the national stage, the right-hander will look to reverse a disturbing start from Colorado’s back end of the rotation.

Bettis was roughed up in his first start of the season as Tampa Bay hit .280 against him and logged six runs in 5.2 innings. It’s just part of the issues encountered by the 3-4-5 pitches in Colorado’s rotation.

Tyler Anderson, the team’s third starter, has an 11.00 ERA after two outings and has struck out just five in nine innings of work. Jon Gray, the team’s fourth starter, has a 5.68 ERA but has also shown moments of inconsistency that have cost the Rockies.

Case in point was Saturday night’s outing against Los Angeles. Gray showed his immense talent with a strikeout of Alex Verdugo in the fifth inning but then left a pitch high in the strike zone in Verdugo’s next at-bat that was hammered to right field for a home run. Take a look…

There simply has to be more than Kyle Freeland and German Marquez bringing stability to Colorado’s rotation. That’s just 40 percent of the rotation and that won’t put any team in a position for the postseason.

Yes, there is time for Colorado to turn the season around. However, these trends have to be reversed in order for that to happen.