Rockies-Giants Series Grades: A sweep with lots of A performances

After losing two out of three close games against the San Francisco Giants in a series earlier in the week, the Colorado Rockies swept their NL West rivals convincingly.

In the last three series, all against division foes, Colorado’s consistently found great starts from their pitchers who’ve really picked up the slack. 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 can be found here.

Trevor Story (56.40 — C+): Story’s final two games were solid contributing two hits in each outing—though he did strike out twice in game two. His game one performance is what brings his score down as he struck out once and grounded into a double play. However, he had a positive series getting a triple and an RBI in game two adding on to the 8-1 win.

(Editors note: Story’s grade was bumped up to a C+ for defensive contributions)

DJ LeMahieu (85.73 — A): DJ had three positive performances in each game of the series, even if he didn’t have a star type outing going over 100, he was above 75 per DPR in each game which is remarkably consistent. He racked up five hits (two of which were doubles) and added a walk in the series while only striking out once.

The kind of solid performances that make LeMahieu so valuable.

Nolan Arenado (95.50 — ⭐): Like most of the offense, Nolan didn’t do much in the final game of the series but he was stellar in the first two outings going above 125 per DPR. Arenado simply raked, reaching the base pads four times in the first game and adding three RBIs in game two with a homer. He was without a doubt the MVP of the series.

Charlie Blackmon (87.39 — A): Chuck found his nasty streak again in game two of the series, going off with a homer and getting himself three hits on the day, a much needed big performance after a dormant few weeks. He hit in each game this series and had himself three RBIs in the first two. A big bounce-back series.

Noel Cuevas (48.96 — D+): Cuevas was able to get a single and bring home a run against Madison Bumgarner in game one, giving him a decent DPR. Like most of the offense, he wasn’t able to have much of an impact in game two, ultimately bringing down his score.

Ian Desmond (55.03 — C): Desmond was able to hit in game two getting himself a double and a single bringing in a run in the process. His other two games were nothing special and his WPA (win probability added) for the series was in the minus each game.

Carlos Gonzalez (50.30 — C-): Appearing in only the first two games should’ve helped CarGo’s DPR, but it’s nothing spectacular. The good is he got a single in each game and scored a run both times. The bad is that he struck out twice in game one with a negative WPA in both outings.

Chris Iannetta (69.93 — B-): In two appearances in the series, Iannetta got himself a hit in both games and added a solo blast that won the Rockies game three, allowing them to sweep the Giants. That game three performance was enough for the overall high score in the series.

Gerardo Parra (79.81 — B+): Parra had a nice game two performance with an RBI single and walk.

Tony Wolters (29.91 — F): Wolters’ struggles with the bat continued in his one game this series, striking out once and going 0-for-4. Finishing up with a WPA in the minus (-0.027).

Tom Murphy (52.23 — C-): Murphy had two pinch-hit at-bats this series, and was able to bring home an RBI double in the first game. His DPR doesn’t reflect how clutch that was, despite a second pinch-hit outing that didn’t go well in game three.

Pat Valaika (50.37 — C-): Valaika had a nice game one pinch-hit, it was his lack of impact in game three, where he started, that brings his DPR down.

Kyle Freeland (80.41 — A-): Freeland put up another quality start against the Giants going a full seven innings and conceding two runs, lowering his ERA to 3.25 on the year. This wasn’t a masterful performance where Freeland had everything working, he had to muscle this out, striking out just three but inducing 10 ground-ball outs.

His 5.02 FIP and 61-percent of strikes thrown aren’t spectacular but Freeland got the job done with a workmanlike performance.

Antonio Senzatela (94.25 — A+): Senzatela was outstanding in his first start of the season, shutting down the Giants in seven innings. His 75 game score, 0.279 WPA, and 2.02 FIP were all impressive. He didn’t induce many strikeouts, only four on the game, but was in control the entire time, not walking anyone and forcing nine grounders. The Rockies couldn’t have asked for more out of him in this spot start.

Tyler Anderson (97.33 — ⭐): After pitching his best outing of the season in his last start, Anderson bested himself in eight innings of shutout baseball. He struck out nine and allowed only two hits and two more walks. His FIP of 1.66, game score of 85, and WPA of 0.596 were all off the charts.

Scott Oberg (69.01 — B-): Oberg got the job done coming in game one, allowing a hit, and then closing the eighth inning unscathed. He threw all of nine pitches and seven were for strikes, inducing two ground balls and one fly ball out.

Wade Davis (65.62 — B-): Davis wasn’t perfect, allowing a hit in each of the two outings in which he was utilized this series, but he did strikeout three, snatching up two saves in the process. His outing in game one was much cleaner than game three, as he found the strike zone with much greater regularity (66 strike percentage over 57). All in all two quality performances.

Mike Dunn (-68.03 — F): Dunn had a pretty awful outing managing only one out and allowing a run, a walk, and an additional two hits. He also threw only 42 percent of his pitches for strikes. That’s a perfect recipe to get a comically bad DPR like the -68 he was able to “produce.”

Jake McGee (84.34 — A-): McGee ended up throwing all of one pitch cleaning up Dunn’s mess and inducing a nice double play to cut off all momentum the Giants may have had going in as they tried to come back from their seven-run deficit in game two.

Harrison Musgrave (47.00 — D+): In one inning at the end of a blowout game two, Musgrave allowed a hit and walked one, with a 6.16 FIP. Not exactly lights out stuff, but he got the job done holding San Francisco scoreless.