The Colorado Rockies biggest struggle is going to come from their starting pitching.
That was the case on Thursday night in Miami. Despite the offense being shutdown, the Rockies were truly never in the game when starting pitcher Chris Rusin gave up three runs in the 1st inning with little hope that he might actually have his good stuff.
Rusin struggled through the opening frame. After watching Martin Prado drill a double down the line on the first pitch that he saw, Rusin seemed flustered. The lefty then lost his control, gave up a walk to Christian Yelich, a young Marlins batter who is struggling mightily against lefties in 2015. Walking Yelich was a bad idea with Giancarlo Stanton coming to the plate.
Stanton may have had revenge on his mind. The power-hitting outfielder fell victim to Rusin in Denver on Saturday. The Rockies lefty became the first pitcher to strike out Stanton four times in the same game. Maybe that meant Stanton was due, or maybe it meant that he was going to be ultra-focused. Regardless, the results ended up being a three-run home run that started the Rockies on the wrong foot.
For Rusin, the outing was bad. He gave up three runs in the 1st and two more in the 2nd. The Rockies were down 5-0 and had very little chance. However, it was what Rockies fans should expect. The fact that Rusin is in the big leagues is due to the lack of depth in the Rockies organization. The lower levels of the minors have pitchers that look like prized talent, however, the talent that is the most ready is depleted.
Rusin was great in his first three appearances. He attacked the strike zone, and frankly, helped the Rockies turn their awful May around. However, the 27-year-old whom the Cubs gave up on isn’t likely to turn into an ace anytime soon. He is who is he. He is a guy who can fill in when needed and deliver a decent outing. His first three appearances were brilliant, but a guy like Rusin is going to get knocked around from time-to-time.
The Rockies greatest goal should be to start developing starting pitchers. They need to focus on what it is going to take at the minor league level to get starting pitchers ready for the big stage, in front of a large crowd, and more importantly, what it’s going to take for that pitcher to not only mentally battle Coors Field, but to actually be successful there.
Waiting in the wins is prized pitching prospect Jon Gray. The flamethrower pitched on Thursday night in Triple-A and threw seven strong innings, giving up just two runs on four hits. His continued improvement may demand a call-up sooner than the Rockies had anticipated.
However, beyond Gray, the Rockies don’t have a ton of top flight talent to turn to. What that means is that this club is going to have to struggle through some starts like Rusin had on Thursday, simply because they have to go with somenoe and Rusin may indeed be the best choice. It isn’t a knock on Rusin. He has shown why he was so highly thought of in the Cubs organization. However, he shouldn’t be expected to have a great outing every time he takes the mound. Every now and then he is going to take his lumps.
The Rockies offense was silent on Thursday as well. However, it isn’t all that uncommon for a team to see that their starting pitcher doesn’t have his stuff and is going to give up several runs and suddenly the mindset of the team changes. That seems to be the case with the Rockies offense on Thursday. They were waiting for the other shoe to drop with Rusin and it finally did.
The Rockies are leaning heavily on their starting rotation, and they are going to need some guys to really have a breakthrough if they want to continue their success.
