Colorado Rockies: Three trends we noticed in the Chicago Cubs series

Inconsistent pitching continues to be a problem

Colorado’s strength was on the mound in 2018. So far this season, it has been anything but that.

OK, certainly Peter Lambert’s debut on Thursday was a site for sore eyes for Rockies fans who have seen their rotation post a combined 5.40 ERA and Colorado have a total 5.07 ERA (27thin Major League Baseball). Just as a reminder of how special Thursday was, Lambert’s nine strikeouts were a franchise record for a pitcher in his Rockies debut.

Colorado Rockies

There’s the good news. The bad news is that inconsistency has become way too common on the mound this year.

German Marquez, who has come through in big ways for the Rockies this season, has also had some clunkers on the mound, including Wednesday’s outing where he allowed eight runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings of work. Sure, three of those runs came around on a bases-clearing double surrendered by Chris Rusin but Marquez hit two batters and gave up a single to load the bases and force Rusin into the game.

Marquez has allowed four or more runs in four of his seven starts since the beginning of May. He’s considered the strongest member of the rotation (which has just Marquez and Jon Gray left from the five-man rotation that started the season) and has flipped between dominant to just OK and back several times this season.

Both he and Hoffman were victimized in Chicago by, as Bud Black has said, not making critical pitches at critical times. As long as the inconsistency remains and Colorado starters are still giving up big hits at the worst possible moments, the Rockies offense will have to stay red-hot to bail out the pitching.