Despite fights and fits, Rockies won't change their pitching philosophy

DENVER – For all of the fascinating aspects of a Colorado Rockies team, with historically-high expectations and a remarkably unusual start to the 2018 campaign, the most famous—or infamous—moments from this season have been the high-profile hit batsmen.

Emotions boiled over in their series finale with the San Diego Padres, who are back in town, when Luis Perdomo threw one behind Nolan Arenado and a brawl ensued. Emotions boiled to the surface (but not over) in another series finale against the Chicago Cubs when both Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo were beaned.

This has led to a series of questions about whether or not any of this has been intentional and even if the nature of some of these beanballs could lead to a reputation for the Rockies that could, or should, lead to retribution.

I tend to doubt a “bad boys” moniker can truly percolate around a mostly mild-mannered group of individuals who have been uncharacteristically involved in their fair share of heated moments. Also, understanding that the health of those who play the game should always be priority number one, it’s clear when taken in context that none of the individual HBPs were on purpose, but rather as the result of some wildness from a young staff.

So I asked manager Bud Black about what his pitchers, who have already had trouble gaining a rhythm in the early going, can do to ignore all the noise and stick to their gameplan.

“It’s part of the game,” he replied plainly. “Obviously, German [Marquez] did not mean to hit Bryant. And Jake [McGee] in a close game did not mean to hit Rizzo. Rizzo, as you know, crowds the plate, he’s one of the leading hit-by-pitch guys in all of baseball. You hate to see anyone get injured but how we pitch, how a lot of teams pitch, inside is part of the game.”

It seemed clear, though he denied it after the game, that the 23-year-old Marquez was indeed rattled by the pitch that rattled Bryant. It may have been a coincidence, but he went away from his hard sinking/tailing fastball that he so often uses to jam hitters and starting working off-speed away. Maybe just a change of pace, but maybe out of a better-safe-than-sorry mentality.

The last thing he wants to do is start another fight, and it’s just human to try to avoid making that same mistake again, knowing the tensions are flaring and having just been through this before.

But Colorado absolutely cannot afford to let these extracurricular concerns cloud their gameplans and alter their aggressiveness.

I asked Black if he is sending that message to his players, to put everything else out of their minds, even as some would propagate a silly new narrative that the Rockies are headhunters.

“We pitch,” he says, again with a plain and firm expression. “We pitch towards our scouting reports. We pitch toward hitter’s weaknesses. We pitch toward’s our strengths. So that’s what we do.”