The Colorado Rockies pitching by the numbers through 30 percent of the season

With their loss on Wednesday, the Colorado Rockies have played 30 percent of their 2020 schedule.

The Colorado Rockies have a 12-6 record through 18 games, or 30 percent of their 2020 regular-season schedule. Up until their last series at Coors Field with the Arizona Diamondbacks, they had won each series they had played. That was largely due to their starting pitching, which has been one of the best in all of baseball.

Overall, their starters are 7-4 on the season with an ERA of 3.55, which is pretty good, especially when you consider that includes Jon Gray’s performance on Monday when he went 3 1/3 IP and allowed 8 runs and it also includes Antonio Senzatela’s six-inning outing yesterday in which he allowed five runs. Excluding those two starts, the Rockies starter ERA would be 2.64.

Most starting pitching staffs aren’t going to pitch to a 2.64 for an entire season (even if it’s just 60 games) but if they can keep it right around the 3.55 ERA area for the season, that would be a huge thing for the Rockies postseason hopes.

One thing that they will likely have to address at the trade deadline two weeks from Monday is their bullpen and, in particular, left-handed relievers. They only have two left-handed relievers in their 9-man bullpen and thus far, those lefties (James Pazos and Phillip Diehl) have struggled the most. Each of them have ERA’s of 16.88 (Pazos) and 13.50 (Diehl) in 2 2/3 innings each.

Overall, their team bullpen ERA is 4.76. Opponent’s OPS+ is 20 percent higher against the bullpen than it is against the starting pitching.

For both the starters and bullpen, they are pitching much better on the road than at Coors Field. On the road, in 8 games, the Rockies pitching staff is 6-2 with an ERA of 1.80. Opponents are only hitting .180/.261/.268 against the Rockies in those games.

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On the other hand, at Coors Field, the Rockies are 6-4 with an ERA of 5.70 and an opponent slash line of .290/.332/.470. Obviously, those numbers are higher due to Gray and Senzatela’s starts on Monday and Wednesday at Coors.

Overall, the Rockies team ERA is 3.99, which 7th in baseball. One of the six teams ahead of them is the St. Louis Cardinals, who have only played five games due to the COVID outbreak in their organization.

The Rockies are 6th in FIP at 3.71 and they are tied for the best home-run rate per nine innings with the Los Angeles Dodgers (0.9 per nine innings). The Rockies pitchers are only walking 2.4 batters per nine innings, which is 3rd best in all of baseball (2nd best if you exclude the Cardinals).

While there is obviously some room for improvement (particularly in the bullpen), the Rockies pitching staff is a huge factor in why the Rockies are where they are 30 percent of the way through the season. They are tied for the most wins in the NL with 12.

The Rockies will look to regain their winning ways on Friday when they will face the Texas Rangers at Coors Field at 6:40 PM MT. They will face Lance Lynn, who they faced on Opening Day and who has a 1.16 ERA thus far. The Rockies will send Ryan Castellani to the mound in his 2nd MLB start and his first at Coors Field after tossing four hitless innings in Seattle in his debut.