3 Winners and 2 Losers from recent Rockies' road trip

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Fresh off a pretty homestand, where maybe the results weren't there, but there was a lot of fight and positive signs, the Rockies would head off for one of their toughest road trips of the year. After their pitching had delivered a number of solid starts at the hitter friendly confines of Coors Field, the Rockies would look to carry that momentum across the country.

The Rockies looked like they were bound to cause some trouble in the opener after getting to Cy Young candidate, Kevin Gausman, early on. After that, however, it was a lot of crickets, frustration and sicknesses. Not only did the offense scuffle, but they dealt with a number of players getting the flu. Charlie Blackmon started the road trip off with the flu, before Brendan Rodgers sat out the entire Philadelphia series with the flu bug.

The team again has shown fight, but it just isn't translating to wins. We know that the wins aren't what the focus is, the player development and emergence of some of the younger players is, but it would be really nice to see this team capitalize on some of these games where the Rockies look like they are down and out, before standing back up, delivering a combination of punches that get them right there and one hit away from winning the game.

The Rockies will return home, and they will be thankful for that. It's another tough stretch as they will square off against three teams that are expected to be competing for a playoff spot. But today, we want to reflect back on the recent road trip to see who the winners and losers were from a forgettable adventure.

These 3 winners will need to continue on the homestand to string together some wins

Rockies pitching

One of the biggest weak points of this Rockies team was expected to be their pitching staff. It sure looked like that was going to be the case early on, but the young group responded well. Against a pair of very talented offensive groups, the Rockies starting pitching did a very solid job, giving the team ample opportunities to win a ballgame. The Rockies starting pitching threw 33.2 innings in the six games, with a solid 4.28 ERA, and a very solid 2.41 BB/9 and decent 6.15 K/9. The pitching staff didn't seem like it would be able to win this team games, and it may never get to that point, but they certainly didn't lose any of the games in this series.

Brenton Doyle continues to flash his potential

Where the Rockies pitching was the story of this road trip, Brenton Doyle was one of the surprising performers offensively. As a matter of fact, he has been one of the biggest bright spots, yet again, in the Rockies 2024 offense, even causing Bud Black to move him up to the two-hole in the series finale Wednesday. Doyle continues to hit the ball hard, tied for Tovar with the second most home runs on the team, even putting up a 114 wRC+ on the year.

Oh My Doyle! pic.twitter.com/5r4zpvQdhN
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) April 13, 2024

The Rockies have one of the most underrated catchers in baseball

With Diaz being 33 years old and on an expiring contract, so much of the talk around him is centered around his trade value. Diaz will be a hot commodity come July and August, though I doubt the team will entertain trading him as they have done with other veterans on expiring contract.

However, fans really need to soak up and appreciate what Diaz has done in his time with the Rockies and we may be seeing the best version of him in 2024. He continued his hot start on this road trip, going 7 for 24 which is a .292 batting average. Where the offense struggled, Diaz did everything in his power to spark the offense.

The 2 losers from the road trip

Kris Bryant with another back injury

Bryant really struggled to start this year. His bat looked slow, he was swinging at sliders off the plate, was late on fastballs inside and just couldn't come through when the team needed him to. There was a lot of talk about removing him from the lineup, or at least moving him down in favor of Michael Toglia or Elehuris Montero, but we didn't see that happen.

News came out that Bryant was going to be placed on the IL and I am not sure how to feel about it. The Rockies lack thump in the middle of the order, but Bryant wasn't really providing it. The Rockies be in a win-win scenario as Bryant can hopefully step away and get healthy, while allowing some of the younger players to develop. Bryant is the big loser here after a lot of criticism, he just continues to show how bad of an investment it was to give him such an absurd contract.

The Rockies offense completely disappeared

After getting terrible pitching, while the offense was putting up five, six, and even 10 runs sometimes, the script was completely flipped. The Rockies actually got some pretty solid pitching over the last turn or two through the rotation, and if they got any sort of offensive output, they would have a few more wins.

Over the six-game road trip, the Rockies averaged just 3.67 runs per game, but that number is heavily skewed when you factor in their 12-run explosion against Kevin Gausman. In the next five games, the Rockies averaged just two runs again, getting shut out in two games on this road trip. When you take out the Gausman game, this team put up a 33 wRC+ on the road trip, hit .198 with a near 31% strikeout rate.

There is no way to win games when your offense is that bad, and it's very hard when your stars aren't performing. Things will hopefully turn around as the Rockies return home for a nine game homestand.

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