The Colorado Rockies are better than they were a year ago.
That is true. It is also not especially comforting after the last two nights.
On Wednesday, the Rockies carried a one-run lead into the ninth inning against the Texas Rangers and lost 5-4. On Thursday, they wasted an impressive first career start from Zach Agnos in a 2-1 walk-off loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Two games. The same frustrating result.
The season splits make the frustration easy to understand. Colorado is 5-14 in May and has
been outscored 122-74 this month, so this has not all been heartbreak. They have had their doors blown off, too. But the pain comes from the games that were there to be won. The Rockies are 5-8 in one-run games, have blown 12 leads, and have four walk-off losses without a walk-off win of their own. Some nights get away early. The ones that stick are the ones they fail to finish.
After Thursday’s loss, Warren Schaeffer did not dress it up. Arizona executed. Colorado did not.
And, yes, that is pretty much it.
The Rockies did not lose because of bad luck, bad vibes, or some complicated baseball mystery. They lost because Arizona made the pitches and plays when it mattered, and the Rockies did not.
Tonight, the Rockies enter at 19-32 and get another chance against an Arizona team that comes in at 26-23 and has won five straight. Colorado is 1-3 against the Diamondbacks this season and has been outscored 21-12 in the series.
Taking the ball for Colorado is 36-year-old veteran righty Tomoyuki Sugano 菅野 智之, who enters at 4-3 with a 4.02 ERA and 1.26 WHIP. Sugano is coming off his 150th career win in professional baseball after beating this same Arizona team in his last start. The Diamondbacks made Sugano work, but he kept the ball in the yard and gave Colorado a chance. He went 5.0 IP, allowing seven hits and two earned runs with two walks and one strikeout.
Sugano does not miss bats, and the underlying numbers are still flashing warning signs, including a .310 xBA, .589 xSLG, and 7.37 xERA. But he generally avoids walks, and when he keeps the ball in the park, the Rockies have been able to live with the contact.
On the mound for Arizona is 28-year-old right-hander Michael Soroka, who enters at 6-2 with a 3.49 ERA and 1.33 WHIP. In his last outing, Soroka faced the Rockies at Coors Field and gave Arizona 5.2 innings, allowing six hits, two earned runs, two walks, and no home runs while striking out eight. Soroka threw 98 pitches and used a five-pitch mix, led by 38 slurves, 21 four-seam fastballs, and 19 cutters.
The slurve is the pitch that makes his arsenal work. He has thrown it 33.0% of the time this season, and it has produced a 36.9% whiff rate. The four-seamer has been more vulnerable, allowing a .349 batting average and a 47.8% hard-hit rate.
Against Soroka, the assignment is simple: do not let the slurve control the at-bat, and do not miss the fastball.
For Colorado, the rest of the formula is unforgiving: Sugano has to thread the needle, the defense has to be sharp, and the bullpen has to execute well enough to give the Rockies another chance to finish one.
The long-term project is still the long-term project. Nobody needs to pretend otherwise.
But even bad teams should want to win.
And after the last two nights, a win would feel awfully good.
The details….
First Pitch: 7:40 PM MDT
TV: Rockies TV
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)
Diamondbacks SB Nation site: AZ Snake Pit
Lineups:
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