Please pardon the overreacting Colorado Rockies fans.
Sure, the Rockies 5-4 victory in 10 innings only gave them three wins on the season. There are 159 of these games to go. However, faulting a Rockies fan for getting excited about the sweep is like making fun of a guy roaming the desert for months who gets excited about his first glass of water.
On Wednesday the Rockies completed the sweep with an entirely different style than they used in the first two games in Milwaukee.
Rockies starter Eddie Butler gave a workman-like performance on the mound, but certainly wasn’t as dominant as Kyle Kendrick and Jordan Lyles who proceeded him. Butler, one of three or four players on this Rockies team who will determine the fate of the 2015 season, pitched 5-2/3 innings, giving up two runs on four hits. He walked four and struck out five.
Butler was decent, but one major difference between the first two starts and the start Butler gave the club tonight was the number of free passes. With two outs in the third inning, Butler walked Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy on a 3-2 pitch. Instead of pounding the strike zone and seeing what might happen, Lucroy drew the free pass and two pitches later Adam Lind blasted a two-run homer to right field. The Brewers had a 2-0 lead and things were looking much different for the Rockies.
The good news for the Rockies is that they have a lineup that can produce runs in a variety of ways. On Monday, the Rockies scored 10 runs while hitting only two home runs. They scored five runs in the win on Tuesday without the long ball. On Wednesday, however, they launched three home runs, one of which was a pinch-hit 10th inning shot from Wilin Rosario that proved to be the game-winner.
Rosario’s blast, a monster shot in itself, was overshadowed by two big blasts by Corey Dickerson and Carlos Gonzalez. CarGo’s home run was measured at 467 feet. The reality is, if the ball hadn’t have dented the Miller Lite sign right below the scoreboard, it may have gone another 150 feet. Of all of the long home runs CarGo has hit in his career, that was his longest.
Dickerson’s homer came in the 7th inning, a no doubt solo shot to right field to move the Rockies to tie the game. Gonzalez launched his the following inning with Charlie Blackmon on second base to give the Rockies a 4-2 lead.
The Rockies offensive prowess is why the starting pitching is such a huge concern for the club. The three pitchers who can make-or-break the Rockies season are Lyles, Butler and Tyler Matzek. If those three pitchers can pitch to their potential, or even take the next step and be a leader for the club, the Rockies could legitimately become the surprise team in the National League West.
If, however, two of those three can’t live up to their potential and they regress, the Rockies offense will have the weight of the team’s success on their shoulders.
The reality of baseball is that the more pressure a pitching staff can take off of an offense, the better the chance the offense has to score runs. On the flip side of that, the more pressure an offense can take off of a starting pitcher, the better the chance of a pitcher getting quick outs and pounding the strike zone. The Rockies need to balance out their contributions. The offense will be good enough, but they cannot do it alone. They need the Rockies starters to be good enough to keep them in games.
The sweep of the Brewers was enough to excite Rockies fans because it has been so long since they have seen good baseball, specifically on the road. The wins showed that the Rockies can play baseball in the exact way that is required for them to be good.
So pardon the over-exuberant Rockies fans at work on Thursday. There may be 159 more games to go, but wins on the road are few and far between for the Rockies. Sweeps on the road are even harder to come by. Let the deprived fan have their day in the sun.
