Brett Pill doesn’t have the luxury of nostalgia. As the Rockies’ first-year hitting coach sees it, the job is less about staring at last year’s wreckage and more about stacking small offensive wins until the whole thing looks different.
That mindset has mattered in a season that’s already well past the point of clean expectations. The Rockies are 54-87 after Friday night’s 7-6 loss to the Cardinals at Coors Field, and while that record sits in the shadow of last year’s 43-119 collapse, the offense has made enough progress in key areas to suggest something sturdier may be forming underneath the noise.
Pill framed it in the simplest terms: focus on the pitch, not the panic.
“It’s harder for me, because I don’t have a reference for what it was like in here last year, so that’s good,” Pill said. “There are times that I’m like, 'Man, we should be doing better.'
But we take it pitch-by-pitch. 'Hey, we’re going up against this pitcher, and this is what we’re going to try to accomplish.'
And if we don’t, what can we learn from that?
“Then it’s repeat. The losses and wins should reflect a bit of that process, so if we’re constantly losing or getting close to 100, whatever that is, we’ve got to figure out a better way. But we focus more on the micro part of it.”
The numbers back up the idea that the Rockies have been better in the small stuff. Last season, they finished 23rd in batting average at .237, 30th in on-base percentage at .293 and 29th in OPS at .679. Their production with runners in scoring position was even more damaging: a .678 OPS overall in those spots, and a .648 mark with two outs, both ranking 27th.
This year, those same areas have moved closer to respectability. The club has climbed out of the cellar in several of those categories and is sitting in the middle of the pack or the top 10 in others after Friday’s game.
One number in particular stands out: the Rockies entered Friday leading MLB in runs scored in the eighth inning or later with 169, two more than the Cubs.
That late-game punch has become part of the team’s identity, but it has also masked a more familiar problem. The Rockies have been able to fight back, yet too often they’ve had to fight back because they didn’t do enough early.
A recent 15-game stretch from Aug. 17-Sept. 1 showed how fragile that progress can be, with the team slashing .162/.285/.246 with runners in scoring position over that span and posting a .531 OPS in those situations.
Both figures ranked 29th.
Those missed chances have helped define a season full of close losses and familiar frustration. Monday night’s 2-1 loss to the Orioles was the latest gut punch, but it wasn’t an isolated one. The body language has told the story as much as the scoreboard, with scowls and short answers following too many defeats.
“Yesterday on the off-day, I was doing some reflection and was very curious to see how many games we’ve lost by one or two runs -- that number is 43,” outfielder Mickey Moniak said. “That’s not counting the three-run, four-run, even five-run games we felt we were in. But if you look back to last year, we lost 119 games, and I’d be very curious to see how many of those were by two or fewer runs, and I would venture to say not a lot of them.
“But look at the White Sox. They lost 121 games two years ago, and now they’re knocking on the door of the playoffs.
I’m sure last year, if you ask them, it wasn’t the season they wanted to have. Now they’re at the top of the AL Central.”
The Rockies’ late offense can also point to another uncomfortable truth: the club has often been playing from behind. Rookie Cole Carrigg said the team has shown it can finish, but not always start.
“We do a good job climbing back into games when we need to, but we’ve got to be the team that is ahead on those games,” rookie Cole Carrigg said. “Sometimes I think we get a little lax in the middle innings -- I could be wrong, or I could be right. For whatever reason, we are able to lock in for the seventh, eighth or ninth innings.”
There’s also the question of whether the lineup’s youth plays into those early-game lulls. Against the Cardinals on Friday, the Rockies started three rookies and three other hitters who have not had a season in which they weren’t optioned to the Minors.
That has led to a theory worth at least considering: young hitters may be facing starter arsenals that are more varied and less forgiving before they’ve built up a long track record of plate appearances. Brett Sullivan, who delivered the two-run, 11th-inning single in a 6-5 win over the Orioles, said there may be something to that idea.
“That could be true in a lot of ways,” Sullivan said. “Does it make it easier to hit?
“The approach could be easier: ‘If I’m in this spot right here, I’m going to pull the trigger and swing.' So in that sense, yes. But if it’s the other pitch, you might be out of luck.
“But in those situations, I think everyone throws 100 [mph].”
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