Rockies-Astros Series Grades: A tale of two games

The Colorado Rockies faced off against the Houston Astros on the road, pulling off an exhilarating win in game one and getting absolutely smoked from the get-go in game two.

Houston’s pitchers threw 32 strikeouts in the two games, hurting the Rockies offensive DPR greatly, while on the pitching side those who appeared in the 12-1 game two fair much better, making this an odd two-game series to grade.

Regardless of all that, as we do after each series, using our advanced statistics and our in-house all-encompassing metric DPR, here are our individual grades.

Note: The scores below are each player’s average DPR for the series. All Rockies stats and individual player profiles can be found here.

Nolan Arenado (101.28 —⭐): Utilized as the DH, Arenado was great getting three hits in two games and a walk in each. His game one two-RBI jack was huge in an uber-consistent series. Nolan’s score could’ve been even higher if not for striking out once in each game but a huge outing none the less.

Charlie Blackmon (24.45 — F): Blackmon struck out five times in the series, with only one single. Granted, it was an RBI single in game one to add the fifth run.

This series lowers his DPR on the year to 68.02 which puts him out of the MLB’s top 40 per the metric, a real fall from grace after being in the top five last year with an 81.70.

Trevor Story (69.19 — B-): Story had a monster home run in game one, adding another single to the mix as well. He also delivered the only RBI in game two, though he struck out once—he had three Ks in the series—and grounded into a double play while adding a stolen base.  

DJ Lemahieu (64.11 — C+): DJ was consistent, getting three singles in the series, two in game one, though he didn’t score any runs off those hits and did strike out once in game two with a negative WPA in the process. He still had a .333 batting average, earning a passing grade.  

David Dahl (9.03 — F): Dahl only appeared in game two, striking out in all three of his at-bats, a disappointing showing in a game to forget.

Ryan McMahon (12.72 — F): Boy, what a struggle the Astros pitching presented for this young bat as he struck out all six ABs he had in the two games. He was hit by a pitch in game one and came around to score, a small consolation in an otherwise forgettable series.

Carlos Gonzalez (47.35 — D+): CarGo has been very consistent as of late, getting at least one hit in the last five games and going without a hit only twice in the month of August. His streak continued with a single in each game against Houston scoring a run off of both. He did, however, strike out three times in the series with two performances that warranted a minus WPA.

Ian Desmond (44.97 — D): Desmond appeared in one at-bat in game one, almost going yard with a stand-up triple instead. His game two appearance, like just about everyone else, was one worth forgetting as he struck out twice.

Gerardo Parra (58.61 — C): Parra was either getting on base with two singles or striking out twice in his one appearance in game one, it was just that type of series for Colorado’s offense. He earned a negative WPA but still gets a passing grade per our metric.  

Chris Iannetta (39.37 — D-): Iannetta only appeared in game two and had a blank box score with zero hits, strikeouts, or walks. Onto the next one.  

Tony Wolters (56.61 — C): Started in game one. Wolters had an RBI double and struck out twice.

Pat Valaika (31.68 — F): Getting four at-bats in the series, Valaika struck out three times and hit a single, nothing spectacular.

German Marquez (86.01 — A): Marquez came out and battled Justin Verlander to perfection, as he just dominated Houston’s powerful lineup going seven innings in which he only allowed three hits and one run. His 2:7 walk to strikeout ratio was terrific, added to a 72 game score and a 0.269 WPA.

Why wasn’t Marquez’s DPR higher? His 61-percent strike percentage was his second lowest since May, his FIP of 2.45 was higher than you’d expect and his ground ball to fly ball ratio of 6:9 was also a bit off. Still, this was a special outing from the righty with overwhelming stuff.

Tyler Anderson (2.40 — F): Anderson’s month of August hasn’t been great as he’s now had two of his three worst performances of the season. His outing in game two against the Astros was his worst outing of the year after his first start on opening week, as he only went 4.1 innings allowing seven hits and nine runs, all while conceding three homers and walking another three. A start worth forgetting that he’ll have to move on from quickly.  

Wade Davis (89.66 — A): Davis came into the game one to shut the Astros’ powerful offense down in a very clean inning in which he threw nine of 14 pitches for strikes, getting a strikeout and a ground ball out with a 1.16 FIP.

Adam Ottavino(70.72 — B): Otto did his thing in the eighth inning of game one, coming in and getting the three outs with only a small hiccup when conceding a walk. He wasn’t clinical getting two fly ball outs and throwing only six of his 12 pitches for strikes for a FIP of 4.16. What matters is he got the job done.

Chris Rusin (92.71 — A+): In his first outing in about a month, Rusin was the one arm who performed well in game two, coming in for 1.2 innings to make quick work of the Astros lineup with two strikeouts and another two ground ball outs. A nice outing to get his confidence back up.  

Harrison Musgrave (-3.18 — F): Given the tough task of coming in for two innings to replace the struggling Anderson, Musgrave had a hard time, conceding three runs off of two homers in the fifth inning. Musgrave just struggled, throwing only 50 percent of his pitches for strikes, allowing four hits and a walk with his FIP ballooning up to 16.66 in the game.