Colorado Rockies morning after: Black weathers struggles to win on road

The frustration of trying to win on the road — and not doing so — was painted across the face of Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black Saturday afternoon.

Black had just witnessed his Colorado Rockies team get a combined six hits over the course of 14 innings in dropping both ends of a doubleheader — 7-0 and 4-0 — to the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

The losses dropped the club’s road record to a Major League-worst 3-22 this season. Entering the twinbill, Colorado had tied the franchise mark for its worst road start to a campaign, joining the 2005 edition of the Rockies.

The back-to-back shutouts upped to 10 the number of times the Rox (19-33) have been blanked this season (including three of the last four contests). Colorado has not suffered this many shutouts this early in the season since the inaugural 1993 Rockies team.

Following the second-game loss Saturday, Black obligingly answered questions from the media, many of which as you might guess, dealt with the Rockies’ inability to win on the road despite having a very respectable 16-12 record at Coors Field in 2021.

This postgame procedure is nothing new for Black, and the answers to the questions from media don’t get any easier, particularly as the road losses continue to mount. But Black endures the seemingly endless inquiries, some of which are posed by Rox Pile, and — to the manager’s credit — he answers each question with aplomb, even though his facial expression exhibits his frustration about the team’s .120 road winning percentage.

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Here are some of Black’s thoughts on the setbacks in Saturday’s doubleheader — Colorado’s fifth twinbill of the year which ties the franchise record for doubleheaders in a season:

“I think especially with our group of players, with the exception of maybe a couple of guys, we have to keep teaching and keep coaching,” he said. “(You) Try to coach a lot of these young guys up and encourage them to keep fighting and keep battling and keep learning and stay with the game plan of the opposing pitcher, the opposing bullpen guys that come in and gain this experience of going through tough times.”

Already taking a young, inexperienced team into the regular season, Black’s job didn’t get any easier with spring training injuries to pitcher Kyle Freeland and  infielder Brendan Rodgers. Both have recently returned to the active roster after missing the first one-fourth of the season.

In addition, Black is now saddled with a lineup that does not include All-Star shortstop Trevor Story, who was placed Saturday on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to May 28) with right elbow inflammation.

Story’s bat could have been big in Saturday’s losses.

In the opener, Colorado stranded two runners aboard in the first inning then left the bases loaded in the sixth to stymie scoring threats on each occasion.

In the second contest, the Rox managed just two hits but did draw five walks from Pirates pitchers. One of those walks and one of those hits (a pinch-hit double by Matt Adams) put runners on second and third with two out in the fifth inning and Colorado trailing 3-0. But a groundout thwarted any potential rally.

“The game was about their pitching and our lack of offense,” Black said about the second-game loss. “It’s been a rough couple of days the last couple of doubleheaders on the offensive side, for sure.”

Prior to the successive shutouts for Colorado on Saturday, the Rox plated just two runs over two games in its most previous twinbill on the road against the New York Mets on Thursday.

The Rockies set a franchise record Thursday with their eighth consecutive road game with three or fewer runs on six or fewer hits. The club extended that streak to 10 straight road games with Saturday’s doubleheader losses.

The team’s offensive road woes have overshadowed some quality pitching by the Colorado starting pitching corps recently.

Rockies starting pitchers have carded an excellent 2.81 earned run average (99.2 IP, 31 ER) in the last 18 games (nine on the road).

In Saturday’s second game, Austin Gomber permitted only two earned runs (both on solo homers) and five hits with five strikeouts in four innings in absorbing the loss.

“We’re excited about his future. I think he is learning with every start he makes,” Black said of the left-hander who, in his previous start, established notched eight strikeouts in eight innings (both career highs) with four hits and two runs allowed in a 3-2 Colorado victory at the Mets.“He has been throwing the ball great. I continue to watch him develop and hopefully he can give us the type of outings here recently moving forward.”

Colorado will conclude its current seven-game road swing with the the series finale Sunday against Pittsburgh. Freeland is slated to start for the Rockies in the 11:05 a.m. (Mountain time) start.