“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.”
– Maya Angelou

I’ve always admired Maya’s words, but I’m guessing that would be a hard quote to read on a wall if defeat had been coming for a long time. Like if you were, say… Colorado Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland.

Freeland joined the Rockies big league club in 2017, and in his first two seasons, went 11-11 and 17-7 alongside a club that also finished over .500 for his first two years. In the eight seasons since? No winning records, including an assurance of that fact once again after losing their 82nd game of the season on Thursday against the Washington Nationals. Since those winning years?

In total, the Rox have lost 711 games and won 454, with 28 still left to go in this campaign. That is many, many defeats. But if we are listening to Ms. Angelou, Colorado still must not be defeated. Not even Freeland, who himself has not had a winning season since those first two. Kyle, currently on the 15-day IL, is a more optimistic trooper than I admit I could be. Strong and positive outlook. I admire that deeply.

It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s already true that Colorado’s trajectory is up, no matter what they do. Currently at 52-82, if the Rockies didn’t win another of those 28 games left, they’d still outperform last season’s 43-119 record. That’s saying something, even if that something rhymes with duck.

But Colorado still has something worthwhile to shoot for. At their current .388 winning clip, they are on pace to win 63 games this season (if you round up from the 62.87 wins that actually represents). A little rounding, and sticking to their current pace, the Rockies still have it in them to wrap up the year at 63-99. Maybe not the measuring stick Rockies faithful want to go by, but still a decisive step forward.

Doing so would also keep the team from the ignominy that would come with tying for second place all time on the “most consecutive 100-loss seasons”, a list currently occupied by the 1909-1912 Boston Braves, the 1962-1965 New York Mets, and the 1961-1964 Washington Senators, who all wrapped up those seasons with their fourth consecutive year of at least 100 losses. Imagine going to a Mets-Senators game in 1963. Woof. They’d have to pay YOU to attend. It would also keep them from moving within one miserable season of the 1938–1942 Philadelphia Phillies’ record of five in a row. The Rockies can avoid it all by just sticking with their current winning clip.

But barely.

That narrow margin is made all the thinner by worries like Freeland’s IL trip, and a few of their more solid players being traded away at the deadline. Every time the team has gone on something akin to a hot streak this season, one more stumbling block has popped up in their path. Maybe winning 11 of the next 28 doesn’t feel like a hot streak to most folks who love baseball… but I’d make an argument for at least cheap champagne in the locker room if they can just lift themselves one more step out of the hole the last few years have found them in. It sounds small, but it feels pretty big to many of us still pulling for the organization.

It won’t be the easiest row to hoe. Five of the remaining nine opponents on Colorado’s schedule have winning records, and the four that don’t are almost all hovering pretty close to .500. There are no clubs left on the horizon that aren’t at least 10 games ahead of the Rockies in the win column. If they can pull this off, it will be quite a feat. Even in defeat.

And maybe that’s more what was on Maya’s mind in her quote up top. Mention anyone experiencing MANY defeats these past few seasons, and the Colorado Rockies logo ought to pop up in the background of that dictionary definition. The purple and black crew is surely in line for a purple heart at this point. But this squad still has some matters of pride to play for, and sometimes even that small light at the end of the tunnel is enough to elicit the best, or at least the best-enough, in a team that needs not be defeated.