Colorado Rockies morning after: Raimel Tapia’s walkoff makes it a winning streak

It has been a long time since the Colorado Rockies have had one but with the help of Raimel Tapia and others, the Colorado Rockies now have won three games in a row, meaning they have a winning streak for the first time since August 26, 2020, when the Rockies swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-game series.

Most aspects are working for the Colorado Rockies right now.

The Rockies strength entering the season was the starting rotation and it continued to work well for them on Friday.

German Marquez turned in a quality start as he pitched six innings, allowing six innings with two runs (both earned) with three walks and eight strikeouts, the last of which came on his last pitch (his 100th) of the night when he struck out former 1st overall draft pick, outfielder Mickey Moniak.

With Marquez’s quality start, it was the Rockies 11th of the season and six of them have come in their last seven games. The Rockies starting pitchers have also allowed three runs or fewer in 17 of their 19 games thus far.

The offense, which was one of the worst (if not the worst) in nearly every offensive category has been much better in during the winning streak.

In the first 16 games of the season, the Rockies hit .221/.270/.385 as a team, averaging 4.1 runs per game and in their three-game winning streak, though, they are hitting .299/.389/.588 as a team, averaging 5.67 runs per game.

Along with Tapia’s walkoff home runs (the first of his career), Trevor Story, C.J. Cron, and Garrett Hampson all had solo home runs. For Story, it was the first of the 2021 season for him. With the home run and his double, he is now hitting .286/.320/.443, which is still behind his regular numbers (particularly the on-base and slugging) but they are definitely moving in the right direction.

Tapia went 3-for-5 on the evening while Story and Hampson each tallied two hits. Ryan McMahon, C.J. Cron, Yonathan Daza, and Sam Hilliard (who came on to pinch hit in the pitcher’s spot) all also had a hit. For Hilliard, he broke his 0-for-20 skid in which he struck out 10 times.

But there were still some problems in the game for the Rockies.

There were a few recurring problems that arose for the Rockies in the game.

First off, Charlie Blackmon is still struggling at the plate. While the advanced stats suggest that he’s been a victim of some bad luck, at the end of the day, you do have to get results.

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After Friday’s game, he is now hitting .164 with an on-base percentage and slugging percentage of .292 and .291.

Since August 12, 2020 (59 games), Blackmon is hitting .202 with an on-base percentage below .290 and a slugging percentage below .320. His wRC+ is more than 50 percent below league average.

Rockies manager Bud Black told the media, including Rox Pile, after the game that he believes that Blackmon is “in between” on his timing at the plate, meaning that he is behind on the fastball but ahead of the offspeed pitches. He said that he thinks Blackmon will return to the production that we are used to seeing once he gets the timing back.

Yency Almonte also struggled in the bullpen again as he now has an ERA of 9.72 after allowing two runs in one-third of an inning. He relinquished the 2-2 tie in the seventh but the Rockies were able to score single tallies in each of the last three innings.

He has allowed runs in four of his ten appearances but he has allowed multiple runs to score in each appearance.

On Saturday, the Rockies will have Antonio Senzatela return to the hill after allowing only one earned run in six innings agains the Mets last Sunday. However, he was still saddled with the loss in the Rockies 2-1 loss to the Mets.

Aaron Nola will oppose him and Nola is off to an excellent start to the season (2.19 ERA and a 1.96 FIP) after he finished seventh in NL Cy Young Award voting in 2020 and 3rd in the voting in 2018 so the Rockies will definitely have their work cut out for them.