Colorado Rockies: Searching for the positives during a tough start

The Colorado Rockies’ 2019 mission of winning their first ever National League West division title and/or making their third consecutive playoff appearance has already taken on a catastrophic turn of events.

After starting the season with back-to-back victories over the Miami Marlins, disaster has struck and has knocked the Colorado Rockies completely off course as they have now lost eight of the last nine games. It has gotten so bad in Denver, that they are struggling to find anything tangible that they can their hang hopes on.

The situation in Colorado is like a scene cut straight out of the movie “Apollo 13.” In the 1995 blockbuster film, Ed Harris’ character, Flight Director Gene Kranz, asks one of the engineers after the flight goes terribly wrong, “What do we got on the spacecraft that’s good?” The engineer replies, “Uh…I’ll get back to you, Gene.”

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The quote perfectly sums up what is happening with the Rockies. There are so many things going wrong that it is difficult to identify what’s good. So instead of dwelling on all of the negatives, let’s search for some of the positives that will somehow get this mission of making the playoffs back on course.

Beginning with the obvious, the play of starter German Màrquez have kept the Rockies from complete devastation. He is responsible for the two of Colorado’s three victories. He has been fantastic in his two starts giving up one lone run in 13 innings. Last week, he was also rewarded with a lucrative five-year, $43 million contract extension.

Nolan Arenado is showing signs of finally breaking out of his slow start of the season. After managing only seven hits in his first 28 at-bats, he is 5 for his last 15 with 4 RBI. He is still in search of his first home run but the way he is swinging the bat of late, the wait shouldn’t be long.

This may come as a surprise but the bullpen has not been as horrible as it seems. Their ERA may be in the bottom half of the league but most of the runs given up have been when the game was already out of hand. They also have been hindered by being overworked as the back end of the rotation has consistently failed to get through the fifth inning.

Denver, we have a problem with the Rockies. However, before they can get this mission back on course, they need to capitalize on the things they do well as they attempt to fix their problems. The Rockies better get it corrected before its too late.