Three games. That’s it.
The Rockies have reached the final weekend of the 2026 season, and after the way the last two months have gone, I am very much looking forward to the offseason and what comes next — pending lockout notwithstanding.
Don’t get me wrong, there was real progress this year. Colorado had stretches where it looked much more competitive and gave some reason to believe things were moving in the right direction.
But August and September have been rough.
The Rockies are 14-35 over the last
two months, including 5-16 in September, and come into Chicago on a four-game losing streak. They closed the book on Coors Field by getting swept by Arizona, falling 7-2, 5-3 and 12-8.
So yes, I am ready for the offseason. Ready to start sorting through the roster, the rotation, what worked, what didn’t and what comes next.
Six months of watching this team every day is about to stop all at once, and as ready as I am to turn the page, I know I am going to miss watching these guys play when suddenly there is no game to turn on.
Before that happens, it would be nice to see the Rockies close the season on a positive note against a quality opponent. The playoff-bound White Sox still have something to play for, entering the weekend just one game behind Cleveland in the AL Central.
Tomoyuki Sugano gets the first chance to help make that happen tonight, probably for the final time as a Rockie.
Sugano enters 12-11 with a 5.36 ERA over 147.2 innings. A win tonight would give him 13, making him the first Rockies pitcher to win 13 or more games in a season since 2018, when Kyle Freeland won 17 and Germán Márquez won 14.
The second half has been difficult, but Sugano is coming off one of his better recent starts after holding Seattle to one run on one hit over five innings with five strikeouts.
Recently, the biggest issue has been avoiding the big inning.
Sugano has shown he can still navigate a lineup when he keeps the damage contained, but several starts have gotten away from him quickly when mistakes begin stacking together.
He continues to work with a deep seven-pitch mix led by his split-finger, four-seam fastball and sinker, with a sweeper, cutter, slider and curveball mixed in. The splitter remains his best bat-missing pitch.
Sean Burke will make his final regular-season start for Chicago after putting together a strong year.
The right-hander enters 10-7 with a 3.40 ERA, 178 strikeouts and a 1.20 WHIP over 167 innings. Burke leads with a four-seam fastball around 95 mph and pairs it with a knuckle curve around 79 mph, creating a sizeable velocity gap. He fills the space between with a slider and cutter while also mixing in a sinker. The changeup is barely used at all.
The exact combination changes with handedness. Lefties see more four-seamers and curveballs, while the slider becomes a bigger part of the plan against righties. Left-handed hitters have produced a .233/.305/.405 line against Burke, compared with .217/.302/.339 for righties.
Burke doesn’t have pinpoint command and can give up some hard contact in the air, but he has enough stuff to miss bats. He has also pitched well down the stretch outside of one ugly start in Pittsburgh. In his other three September outings, Burke has allowed just one earned run over 16.2 innings.
On offense, there are a few milestones worth tracking over the final weekend. Hunter Goodman is sitting on 39 home runs, one away from 40, while T.J. Rumfield is batting .297 with a chance to finish his first major-league season at .300. Jake McCarthy is also two triples shy of 15, which would give him at least 15 doubles, 15 triples, 15 home runs and 15 stolen bases on the year.
So, can Sugano avoid the big inning and pick up win No. 13 while the Rockies find a way through Burke and open their final weekend with a win?
The details…
First pitch: 5:40 p.m. MDT
TV: Rockies.TV
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)
White Sox SB Nation: South Side Sox
Lineups:
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