You can’t win if you don’t score.
The Colorado Rockies have had to learn that lesson the hard way over the course of the past two nights. The Rockies dropped their third in a row to the Mets, the second consecutive shutout, 3-0.
It hasn’t helped that the Rockies have had to face Matt Harvey followed by Jacob deGrom in back-to-back nights. There would be disappointment if it mattered anymore. The problem is, wins and losses mean absolutely nothing at this point in the season for the Rockies.
While Jorge De La Rosa continues to give the Rockies their best chance to win, just as he did on Wednesday night when he went six strong innings, giving up just two runs. However, even those games just don’t matter anymore. Even if the Rockies win every single De La Rosa start for the remainder of the season, they will be lucky to finish higher than dead last in the National League West. The results are already in, regardless of the wins and losses. The Rockies are a bad team.
On Wednesday night, the Rockies continued to play baseball as if they weren’t living in reality. In the top of the 7th inning, down 2-0, manager Walt Weiss decided to pinch hit for De La Rosa with two outs and no one on base. Newly called-up Matt McBride promptly struck out.
While the decision sounds like a solid baseball move, with few outs to spare and down 2-0, the reality is, the Rockies situation simply isn’t one that requires typical baseball decision-making.
The Rockies have a terrible bullpen. Once De La Rosa was removed from the game, it was a near certainty that the Rockies would give up another run. It wasn’t enough to hope that McBride could get a base hit and the Rockies could start a rally and tie the game up, or even take the lead. The problem is, even if they were able to get close, the reality is that the bullpen that the Rockies would have to send to the mound in order to preserve a small lead or keep the game close isn’t one that can be depended on.
On Wednesday night, the honor of giving up the additional run went to Christian Bergman, who gave up a solo home run to Yoenis Cespedes to extend the Mets lead to 3-0.
The reality is, the Rockies weren’t going to win without scoring a run. They haven’t crossed the plate 24 innings and counting. It doesn’t matter if Jorge De La Rosa is on the mound or Jon Gray. The offense has to find ways to score runs, even against really good pitching like the Rockies have faced over the past week or so.
The sad thing for the Rockies is that it is only the middle of August. They are mired in a season that isn’t going anywhere and the end isn’t quite in sight. The best thing that can happen is for the Rockies to push themselves and improve in the many areas that they need to shore up before they go into the 2016 season when the wins and losses will once again count again.
