Colorado Rockies podcast: Why Antonio Senzatela is a second-half key

There has been a lot of attention paid to the Colorado Rockies rotation this season. However, there’s a young pitcher on the back end of the rotation who perhaps hasn’t received the recognition he is due.

Antonio Senzatela will take the mound on Sunday afternoon at Coors Field with a mission of trying to give the Colorado Rockies a series win and reverse some ugly momentum that occurred late on Saturday night/early on Sunday morning in Cincinnati’s 17-9 victory. It was the seventh loss in the last eight games for the Rockies and dropped Colorado to 45-46 on the season.

Senzatela, a 24-year-old right-hander, has had his ups and downs this season as evidenced by his 5.32 ERA in 16 starts. He has surrendered 101 hits in 86.1 innings and has walked (41) almost as many batters as he has whiffed (48).

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So there’s the bad news. The good? When Senzatela is on, he is on in a big way for the Rockies. He has seven quality starts so far this season for Colorado, with the Rockies going 6-1 in those games. In June, his four wins tied for the third-most in Major League Baseball and his 3.44 ERA was second only to Jon Gray in the Colorado rotation.

He has also performed well at home in streaks this season, pitching three straight quality starts in three home games from May 12 to June 2. The Rockies were 3-0 in those games as Senzatela posted a 2.89 ERA during that stretch.

Colorado’s rotation needs some good news right now and Senzatela could provide that while bolstering the back end. Of course, he’ll need to find consistency. He will also need to rely on some of the mechanic tweaks that he incorporated into his delivery in the offseason.

In this episode of the Rox Pile Rockies Report (that you can hear by clicking here), we talk about Senzatela and that important tweak, as well as hearing from manager Bud Black and pitching coach Steve Foster on what it has meant to him and what it could mean moving forward.

Click here for the latest episode as we see what Senzatela can do for the Rockies on Sunday.