Slew of single-game performances accentuate best of Rockies' baseball; several newcomers surprise

Baseball is pastoral. It allows time to pass between actions and conversation to be shared between audiences.

While there are still five months until fanatics of the Colorado Rockies can sit in a plastic green seat at the corner of 20th and Blake, the offseason allows for discussion of what may come to be in 2022 as well as what has just occurred in 2021.

With a lot to celebrate this season, it’s as good of a time as ever to distribute some awards to the best over the past year.

Best Performance, Hitter

Winner: Ryan McMahon – 3 HR and 14 total bases, Apr 6 vs. Arizona

Finalists:

Charlie Blackmon – 3-for-4, 2 2B, 3B, 0.798 WPA; May 30 @ Pittsburgh

C.J. Cron – 2 HR, 7 RBI; Aug 8 vs. Miami

Garrett Hampson – 2 HR, 5 RBI; Sep 12 @ Philadelphia

McMahon’s trifecta came in a Tuesday night contest with two coming off Arizona RHP Luke Weaver and the final against LHP Alex Young, all before the eighth inning. 

Though the three-homer game was the 18th in team history and first since Trevor Story in 2018, it was only the fourth time for a game of 14 total bases and first since Nolan Arenado in 2017. Slightly less rare is the fact that McMahon’s first homer came on a 3-0 count, only the 22nd occurance in franchise history and first since he did it in 2020, coincidentally, also off Weaver. 

What will be lost to annals of time is that this game ended up being a 13-inning loss against the Diamondbacks that lasted over four hours (4:29), Colorado’s longest game since 2019,  and that the Rockies lost their fourth-straight, dropping to 1-4 for the season, a tie for the worst start through five games.

While Blackmon’s performance against the Pirates looks like a common great-day-at-the-plate, it’s much more notable since he factored in every run of the Rockies 4-3 victory. He helped snap a five-game road losing streak with the game-tying RBI and the game-winning run in the ninth. This culminated in the highest win-probability-added (0.798) for any game this season and 13th-best in team history.

Best Performance, Pitcher

Winner: Germán Márquez – 9 IP, 1 H, 0 R; Jun 29 vs. Pittsburgh; 

Finalists:

Austin Gomber – 8 IP, 0 R; Jun 14, vs. San Diego

Márquez – 8 IP, 2 H, 1 R; Jun 23 @ Seattle

Antonio Senzatela –  7 IP, 0 R; Aug 29 @ Los Angeles (NL)

Anyway you slice it, the outing from Márquez was easily one of the best by any Rockies’ pitcher since their birth in 1993. It’s certainly tops for the franchise at Coors Field, with all due respect to Kyle Freeland’s similarly near no-hitter on July 9, 2017.

Márquez faced just one more batter than the minimum during this second complete game, one-hit shutout. In the process, the 26-year-old also threw just 92 pitches for the first “Maddux” – a shutout on less than 100 pitches – of his career.

According to Game Score, a statistics created by sabermetric guru Bill James to quantify a starting pitcher’s performance, the outing from Márquez is fourth-best in team history at Coors Field behind only Jon Gray’s 16 strikeout game in 2016, Jeff Francis’ two-hit shutout in 2006 and Chad Bettis’ two-hit shutout in 2016.

Best Performance, Opposing Player

Winner: Anthony Desclafani (SF) – 9 IP, 3 H, 0 R; Apr 26

Finalists:

Willy Adames (MIL) – 4-for-5, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 0.758 WPA; Jun 19

Jacob deGrom (NYM) – 6 IP, 14 Ks; Apr 17

Max Muncy (LAD) – 4-for-5, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Jul 17

Less enjoyable to distribute is an award to an opponent, but it’s appropriate to tip your cap to all the great performances seen against Colorado this season, especially if you stuck around to watch every inning of all 161 games this season. (Yes, this is the first time the Rockies have played less than 162 games in a non-strike or non-pandemic shortened season.)

Desclafani was the only pitcher in 2021 to record a nine-inning, complete game shutout against Colorado. He struck out nine, walked one and gave up three hits – all singles – as the Rockies had just one runner reach second base. The last Game Score better than Desclafani’s 89 was by Madison Bumgarner (98) during a one-hit shutout in 2014. 

The Giants went on to win that game 12-0, the most lopsided loss of the season for the Rockies. It was at this point in April we should have realized San Francisco would be a force to be reckoned with in the NL West.

Best New Dude

Winner: Austin Gomber

Finalists: C.J. Cron, Connor Joe, Robert Stephenson

Colorado brought in multiple players from other organizations last winter, most notably C.J. Cron, Connor Joe, Austin Gomber and Robert Stephenson. Somewhat less notably, was minor league signee Taylor Motter who suited up in purple for 13 games and first baseman Matt Adams who made only 7 starts in his first full-season since mashing 20 home runs in 2019.

Acquired as the lone Major League piece in the Nolan Arenado trade with St. Louis in February, Gomber raised eyebrows by making comments about throwing his curveball on the moon, a relative approximation for the altitude of Denver. The fly ball pitcher seemed to be a bad fit for Coors Field, at least until he started getting outs by the handful.

In April, the 27-year-old gave a free base to nearly half the batters he’d walk all season (19 of 41), but from May 4 to June 19, the control he displayed in Spring Training was back. He was one of the best pitchers in the game during that stretch, pitching to a 2.19 earned run average and striking out 13 for every one he walked (52 K, 4 BB). 

His season took a dip after returning from the injured list with left forearm tightness in July, posting a 6.32 ERA and giving up another 18 base on balls over eight starts despite pitching with lower spine discomfort that eventually ended his season on September 5.

With four more years of club control and an upside comparable to his rotation mates, Gomber is poised to make his mark with the franchise in the foreseeable future.