Colorado Rockies: 3 interesting quotes we heard in San Diego

The Colorado Rockies are coming off a four-game series in San Diego against the Padres that started ugly but ended on a positive note.

After losing the first three games of the series, the Colorado Rockies rebounded behind balanced hitting and the stellar pitching of German Marquez to grab an 8-3 win. After falling behind 2-0 heading into the fifth inning, Colorado responded with a four-run sixth and then tacked on two runs each in the eighth and ninth to secure their only victory of a six-game road swing through Houston and San Diego.

As the only print media member to travel to Denver for the four-game series in San Diego, I had plenty of opportunities to interview Rockies players and coaches and spend time in the clubhouse gauging the emotions that were going along with the mounting losses.

The word that I heard often from players and coaches alike in San Diego was “frustration.” There’s no question that Colorado knows it is playing below expectations. However, at times this season, it’s also been like trying to plug a dam with many leaks. You put a stop to one (in other words, your offense clicks) and another leak forms (your pitching can’t keep the other team off the scoreboard).

With that in mind, here are three of the more interesting quotes I heard during my time with the team in San Diego.

There is no question that the Rockies are struggling. Since June 21 (which began a series of three consecutive walk-off losses to the Dodgers in Los Angeles), the Rockies are 13-30.

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As I mentioned earlier in the article, “frustration” was the key word I heard in the Colorado clubhouse this weekend. Jon Gray, Kyle Freeland, Yonder Alonso and others talked about their frustration with Colorado’s steady slide out of playoff contention.

I asked Bud Black about how he is balancing out that frustration in the clubhouse.

“A lot of times, you walk that fine line of guys trying too hard and putting too much pressure on themselves,” Black said. “The tension of playing and trying to win a game can subtly affect performance. We’re doing everything we can as a coaching staff and players, and that includes veteran players trying to get that right mix of intensity and free and easy play.”

Sunday’s win was a start to negating some of that frustration, but it’s going to take more than one victory for the Rockies to start building some positive momentum.

How do they do that? That ties into the final quote I heard in San Diego to share with you in this article.

“That’s how you win,” Black said after Sunday’s game. “You get good starting pitching. You get timely hitting and that’s how you win. That’s what happened today. The goal is to make that happen tomorrow. Good pitching and timely hitting. We just haven’t had that for the greater part of a month.”

Let’s look back at Colorado’s last two victories. Both came on a Sunday, with one happening in Denver and the other at Petco Park.

Kyle Freeland was solid on the mound and Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story had home runs in a 6-2 win over the San Francisco Giants for the win at Coors Field. German Marquez was solid on the mound and four different players had two hits each in Colorado’s 8-3 road win over San Diego on Sunday.

The key for Colorado last season was finding opportunities and capitalizing on them. That’s something that just hasn’t happened this season and it’s made the difference between being in the cellar of the division and fighting for a playoff berth.

It sounds simple, but Colorado has to hit and pitch better … and actually do them at the same time. Black knows it. The players know it. Now it just has to happen. Hopefully it begins again on Monday at Coors Field against the Diamondbacks.