Colorado Rockies: 3 pitching numbers to know from the first 3 games

The Colorado Rockies have a day off on Monday before starting a two-game series in Oakland against the A’s. Let’s take a look back at three numbers that stood out from their season-opening road series win over the Texas Rangers.

Let’s start with one of the best stories of the Major League Baseball season so far involving a Colorado Rockies reliever and his road to redemption.

Of course, there was a lot of joy surrounding Daniel Bard’s return to the mound for the first time in 2,646 days and earning his first win since May 29, 2012. However, one of the biggest reasons why Bard was successful in his return was his penchant for throwing strikes.

The first number to know from the weekend is 20.

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According to Baseball-Reference.com, Bard was just one of seven Rockies pitchers since the start of the 2017 season to throw 80 percent of his pitches for strikes (minimum 20 pitches). Bard had 20 of his 25 pitches go for strikes against the Rangers. That’s not bad for a player who wasn’t sure if he’d ever return to the mound because of control issues.

Chris Rusin threw 19 of 22 pitches for strikes on August 9, 2017, in a road win against the Cleveland Indians for the best percentage of strikes thrown during that time frame. Also on the list were a couple of recent Rockies cuts in Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee, plus Antonio Senzatela, Scott Oberg, and James Pazos.

And, hey, Bard didn’t even have to worry about finding some tape for his jersey number this time. What a weekend it was.

The second number to know from the weekend is 13.

In a stretch from the fourth to eighth innings on Sunday, Colorado pitchers retired 13 consecutive Rangers. That stretches from a fourth-inning leadoff walk to Todd Frazier off starter Kyle Freeland to Nick Solak’s two-out single in the eighth off reliever Yency Almonte.

That single would be the only hit for the Rangers over the game’s final six innings as closer Wade Davis worked a perfect ninth to record his second save in two days.

While Freeland grabbed many of the pitching headlines on Sunday, the work on the mound from Almonte and Davis was an extremely positive sign for the Rockies. Both relievers had plenty of question marks attached to them heading into the season. However, on Sunday, they combined for three scoreless frames of one-hit ball while issuing no walks and striking out three.

Yes, it’s early in the season. Yes, it’s only three games. However, Colorado’s pitchers have combined for a 1.73 ERA and allowed just 16 hits while compiling a 1.077 WHIP in 26 innings of work. Those numbers are encouraging to say the least for a team that needed a strong start to the season to bolster thoughts of a potential playoff run. They are also encouraging for a team that has arguably its best reliever (Scott Oberg) on the injured list.

With a 2-1 mark, it’s on to Oakland where Antonio Senzatela and German Marquez will make the start on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, for the Rockies.