Colorado Rockies morning after: Beatdown of road-weary teams continues

The Colorado Rockies know what it’s like to struggle on the road in 2021. However, the Rockies have to be thanking MLB’s schedule-makers for the pair of road-weary teams that have entered Coors Field for back-to-back series over the last two weeks.

Here is one reason why the Colorado Rockies have been so successful at home in recent games.

With a 6-3 decision over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night, the Colorado Rockies extended the Rangers’ current road losing streak to 14 games. That’s the most that Texas has ever lost away from home, and the second-most in franchise history, with only the Washington Senators’ 16-game road losing streak in 1961 topping it.

Wednesday’s win sets up the possibility of a Colorado sweep on Thursday afternoon, which, if it happens, would be the second straight sweep for the Rockies in a three-game series at Coors Field, following up on a trio of victories over the Arizona Diamondbacks from May 21-23.

Those three Colorado victories, by the way, were part of a current 13-game losing streak away from home by the Diamondbacks.

Yes, Colorado has played well at home over its past five games, including winning three one-run games in that stretch, but it’s also taken advantage of a pair of teams who have struggled mightily as the visitors.

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But, with the Rockies having just a 4-22 mark away from Coors Field, Colorado isn’t likely to feel much sympathy for a team scuffling while sitting in the third-base dugout at 20th and Blake.

Across the way in the first-base dugout on Wednesday night, Colorado needed some timely hitting and solid pitching to make sure the Rangers kept its road losing streak intact. The Rockies got just what they needed on the mound from starter Antonio Senzatela and at the plate from Raimel Tapia and Joshua Fuentes.

The last time Senzatela toed the rubber against an American League opponent at Coors Field (September 15, 2020 against Oakland), he tossed the first complete game of his career. On Wednesday, it looked like the 26-year-old right-hander could pull the feat yet again, allowing just one earned run through seven innings on 89 pitches. However, manager Bud Black turned to a back end of the bullpen that has been quite effective in recent games, with Carlos Estevez and Daniel Bard posting a clean final 1.2 innings to polish off the victory.

Senzatela’s outing continued quite the string for Colorado starters in recent home outings.

Tapia also snapped out of an 11-for-73 funk on Wednesday with three hits and three RBI. Those three hits on Wednesday matched the total number of hits that Tapia had produced in the previous eight games combined.

Speaking of threes, Fuentes had a productive final three at-bats of the night, posting a double, single, and solo home run. His eighth-inning solo shot over the center field wall was his fifth of the season and first since May 13.

And don’t overlook what Yonathan Daza is continuing to do when he steps to the plate in Denver. With a 2-for-4 night on Wednesday, Daza boosted his overall average to .333 on the season, including a 27-for-71 run at Coors Field (.380).