Colorado Rockies: 3 quick takeaways from the opening series

The Colorado Rockies did exactly what they needed to do against the Texas Rangers to start this bizarre 60-game season.

The Colorado Rockies took two of three games in opening series of the season against the Texas Rangers over the weekend to officially open Globe Life Field. There is plenty to talk about, but here are three quick takeaways from the series.

Strikeouts

If the Rockies are going to have any chance of making the newly expanded 16-team playoffs this season, they must cut down on the strikeouts.

In 2019, they were third-worst in the National League, averaging more than nine strikeouts per game. In the three-game series, they struck out a staggering 32 times. Of course, they did face some pitchers who are known for their swing-and-miss capability, but they must put the ball in play more often in the remaining 57 games.

Pitching, pitching, pitching 

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Excluding the Daniel Bard story, which is a phenomenal story in of itself, the highlight of the series had to be the Rockies’ pitching. Who would have imagined that they would have started 2020 like this?

The starting trio of German Márquez, Jon Gray, and Kyle Freeland allowed only four earned runs in a limited 16.1 innings. As the season progresses and they stretch out their arms and go deeper into games, the rotation could be dangerous if they can find consistency.

The bullpen did provide some moments of terror, especially Saturday, but they came out of it relatively unscathed.

Baseball is back! It’s odd, but back

It’s a strange world we live in these days, but the return of baseball does bring some sense of normalcy back to our lives.

The atmosphere over the weekend was weird with cardboard cutouts of George W. Bush, Pudge Rodriguez, and fans littered in the stands, artificial crowd noise pumped into the stadium, and the announcers broadcasting from remote locations, but the game is still the same.

It may take some time to get use to all of quirkiness, but the next two-plus months is going to an exciting sprint towards the postseason.