Rockies didn't decide the NL West pennant, but race individual player awards impacted

Entering the final homestand of the 2021 season, the Colorado Rockies had an opportunity to impact the postseason with six games against the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants.

With the Dodgers and Giants locked in a heated battle for the top spot in the National League West, the Rockies were poised to shift the balance with three-game sweeps, one on the winning end and one on the losing end. The former would force the loser to play in the NL Wild Card Game where a one-and-done scenario could end a 162-game season in just 27 outs.

Alas, Colorado created only a half-game difference in the standings with a win against Los Angeles and none against San Francisco during the six contests. But impact was made, figuratively and literally in the form of a hit by pitch to Giants’ Brandon Belt on Sunday that resulted in a fractured thumb that will sideline the first baseman an unknown amount of time.

In the process of going 1-5, the Rockies made an impact on the NL Cy Young Award race with matchups against aces Julio Urías, Walker Buehler, Max Scherzer and Kevin Gausman.

The Dodgers three-headed hydra landed in DIA with top marks this season for starting pitchers in ERA (2.79), WHIP (1.02), opponents’ average (.205) and opponents’ OBP (.263). The staff ERA of 2.64 in the second half is the best in franchise history since 1976 and lowest in all of MLB since 1981.

Urías had been first in baseball with 18 pitchers wins and had a 1.44 ERA (56.1 IP, 9 ER) in 10 starts since July 21. Colorado added four more to his ledger over six innings to bring his earned run average over 3.00-mark. It was only the second time the left-hander surrendered four runs since June.

Next up was Buehler, the lone starter this week to not help his squad come away with a victory. He lasted until the fourth-inning, having allowed five runs on seven hits, no walks and two strikeouts. It was his second-shortest outing of the season and third time responsible for five runs or more.

Then there’s the three-time Cy Young Award winner. Since his acquisition from the Washington Nationals at the trade deadline, Scherzer has found another gear. He had not allowed an earned run since the fifth inning of his start on August 21, a solo homer to the Mets’ Brandon Nimmo. Since that substandard offering, it had been 36.2 innings without allowing an earned run.

Despite his success in those five scoreless starts against four NL postseason hopefuls, Scherzer would not make it to the sixth-inning against Colorado, who pushed five runs across the plate, the most against him since joining Los Angeles. Raimel Tapia’s first homer in 295 at bats even broke Scherzer’s homerless streak of 40.2 innings.

Much more successful was the San Francisco hurler who made up for bowing out from an appearance the All-Star Game with his second start of the month at Coors Field. After winning a matchup against fellow Colorado product Kyle Freeland on September 6, Gausman came back to limit the Rockies to one run on three hits through six innings, striking out 11 and walking none, his second such sharp start and first for a Giants’ pitcher in Denver.

Now that it’s all said and done, only a series against the Washington Nationals remains, a club returning to 20th and Blake for the first time since 2019, and with former Rockies’ outfielder Gerardo Parra (2016-18) in tow.

Following trades of Scherzer, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Josh Harrison, Yan Gomes, Jon Lester, Brad Hand and Daniel Hudson, the Nats are a shell of the club once expected to contend for the NL East crown at the beginning of the season. Since the July 30 trade deadline, Washington has the worst record in the Senior Circuit (16-37, .302). 

While a few victories over the Rockies could impact whether Washington has the 5th, 6th or 7th pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, it’s the play of their young superstar Juan Soto that is most important should he improve an already compelling case for NL MVP.

The 22-year-old is doing things at the plate we have rarely seen from a player his age. At two home runs short of 100 for his career, he has a chance to join Ott (115), Eddie Mathews (112) and Tony Conigliaro (104) as players to reach the century mark before turning 23. 

Since dazzlings fans during the 2021 Home Run Derby in a first-round defeat of Shohei Ohtani, Soto is hitting .371/.544/.690. His on-base percentage during this period is only the seventh time a player has been this effective at the plate in the second half.

Colorado pitchers contained the appropriately nicknamed Childish Bambino on Monday night, limiting Soto to a 1-for-4 game with a walk and an RBI despite a bases loaded opportunity late in the game. Starter Germán Márquez caught Soto looking on a knuckle curve for only the third strikeout in his last 72 plate appearances.

With Freeland and Peter Lambert set to pace the remaining two ballgames before the season closes in Arizona against the last place Diamondbacks, all eyes will be in the opposing dugout once again before refocusing on the Rockies roster in the offseason.