Kyle Freeland’s season on the injured list is just the latest reminder of how long the Colorado Rockies have been living in the loss column.
Freeland arrived in the majors in 2017 and opened his career with back-to-back winning seasons, going 11-11 and then 17-7 while Colorado also finished above .500 in both of those years. Since then, the story has turned brutally one-sided. The Rockies dropped their 82nd game of the season on Thursday against the Washington Nationals, locking in yet another losing year.
The numbers behind that slide are ugly. Over the eight seasons since those early winning years, Colorado has gone 711-454, with 28 games still left on the schedule.
Even so, there is a sliver of progress here. At 52-82, the Rockies would still finish better than last year’s 43-119 mark even if they lost every remaining game.
There is also a more concrete target in front of them. Colorado is sitting at a .388 winning percentage, which puts the club on pace for 63 wins.
Rounded out, that would leave the Rockies at 63-99. It is not the kind of record anyone in Denver wants to hang a banner for, but it would still count as a step forward.
That matters because the alternative carries a nasty bit of history. Another season at their current level would keep Colorado from tying for second place all time in consecutive 100-loss seasons, a group that includes the 1909-1912 Boston Braves, the 1962-1965 New York Mets, and the 1961-1964 Washington Senators. It would also keep them from getting within one more 100-loss season of the 1938-1942 Philadelphia Phillies’ record of five straight.
The Rockies are trying to hold that line despite the usual complications. Freeland is on the 15-day IL, and the trade deadline also stripped away some of the team’s more reliable pieces. Every time Colorado has managed a stretch that looks even vaguely encouraging, something else has seemed ready to knock it off course.
Still, there is a path here. If the Rockies can win 11 of their final 28 games, they can climb just a little farther out of the hole the last few years have dug. That may not sound like much, but for a team that has taken so many hits, it would mean something.
The closing stretch will not be easy. Five of Colorado’s remaining nine opponents have winning records, and the other four are all close to .500. None of the teams left on the schedule are at least 10 games behind the Rockies in the win column.
So the margin is thin, and the road is rough. But even in a season built on defeats, Colorado still has something to play for: pride, and the chance to avoid being defined by one more layer of losing.
In Other News...
Former Rockies Arm Is Getting Another Shot And Colorado Fans Will Notice
Michael Lorenzen is back in the spotlight after his brief stay with the Rockies ended earlier this month, and the right-hander now appears headed for another opportunity in Toronto. The Blue Jays have not formally announced the move, but Lorenzen has already set up a locker in the clubhouse and arrived at Rogers Centre, a strong sign that the deal is essentially done.
For Colorado fans, it is another reminder of how quickly a rotation-needy pitcher can move on after a roster shakeup. Toronto needs depth badly with injuries piling up in its starting staff, but the Blue Jays also have a full 40-man roster and still need to clear room before Lorenzen can officially settle in and give them innings. [Read more 🡒]
Gabriel Hughes Is Putting Rockies Rotation Patience To The Test
Gabriel Hughes gave the Rockies another look at what their rotation may eventually become, even if the immediate results were messy. The rookie right-hander worked five innings against the Nationals in a 7-1 loss, and while the line showed seven hits and four walks, he also showed enough fight to keep competing through traffic as Colorado continues sorting through younger arms on the staff.
Warren Schaeffer has said Hughes is getting better, and that matters for a club still trying to blend newer pitchers into the rotation without asking for perfection right away. The larger question is how long the Rockies can keep waiting for sharper command to catch up with the stuff, especially when weak contact and small mistakes are starting to blur together in the outcomes. [Read more 🡒]
Former Rockies Favorite Is Carrying Colorados Underdog Spirit Somewhere New
Eric Young, Sr. has taken the same underdog sensibility that made him a Rockies favorite and brought it into a new setting, this time as manager of the Los Angeles Queens in the Womens Professional Baseball League. The former Colorado All-Star has been talking about his coaching approach and the reason he wanted to be part of the league, which opened its inaugural season on Aug. 1.
Youngs connection to the job goes beyond simply lending his name to a new venture. He has pointed to the challenges the Queens and the rest of the leagues players face, seeing echoes of the path he took as a player who had to carve out his own place in the game. For Rockies fans who remember the energy he brought in Colorado, it is a familiar kind of pride, even if the uniform and the setting are different now. [Read more 🡒]