Colorado Rockies: Starting pitching has been the only thing worth watching

The 2021 Major League Baseball season is a little over three weeks old and the Colorado Rockies are exactly where most pundits predicted where they would be. They’re not only last place in the National League West, but also hold MLB’s worst record.

With a non-existent offense, where Trevor Story has yet to hit a home run and Charlie Blackmon is hitting well below the Mendoza Line, as well as a bullpen that seems to blow up every time Bud Black hands them the baseball, this team has been almost unbearable to watch.

However, there is one thing that has kept fans tuning into the Rockies’ broadcast in what inevitably might become their first 100-loss season in franchise history: The starting pitching.

Through the first 18 games of the season, German Marquez, Jon Gray, Antonio Senzatela, Austin Gomber, and Chi Chi Gonzalez have a combined 3.46 ERA and 80 strikeouts in a combined 96.1 innings of work, with 12 of the games having been played in Coors Field.

Leading this group has been Gray with a miniscule 2.42 ERA in 22.1 innings, having given up six runs on 14 hits while striking out a team-leading 21 batters.

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They have had their issues with control as they have issued a total of 51 walks which has gotten them into trouble and have kept them from going deep into games.  Senzatela has been the weakest link so far, giving up 12 earned runs in 20 innings. However, 11 of those runs can be attributed a pair of awful starts against the Los Angeles Dodgers as he didn’t make it past the fourth inning in either game.

The starters have also kept them in most games as the bullpen has accounted for five of the Rockies’ 12 losses.

So if you think the Rockies have been playing some bad baseball, just imagine where they would be if the starting staff played like we fans have grown accustomed to over the years in Denver.