Colorado offense needs to wake up
Rocktober circa 2018 comes with a strange twist.
The Rockies enter Sunday’s mustwin Game 3 of the National League division series with huge concerns, not about their pitching, but about a perplexing offense that has gone into early hibernation as the leaves begin to fall.
Colorado finds itself down 20 to the Brewers because Milwaukee’s pitchers won all the big moments and because the Rockies have had some truly ugly atbats. In the first two games, Colorado .154, struck out 22 times and walked only five times.
What’s more, Colorado’s offense has simply not been very good all season. The club’s .256 batting average during the regular season was the worst in franchise history, and its .322 onbase percentage was the secondlowest ever (.315, in 2015). Its .287 batting average at home
was the fourthworst in team history.
No wonder Rockies manager Bud Black is not counting on Coors Field magic to automatically resuscitate the offense.
“This is about having good atbats, it isn’t about where you’re playing,” Black said Saturday. “We’ve seen our offense go into sporadic little downturns over the course of the year, which all teams go through this. We talked about that during the course of the season. We had a little downturn there in September, then we bounced back. Now we’re in a little bit of a downturn this last week.
“And there’s something to facing good pitching. There’s something to that. But in general, the quality of our bats have not been great.”
That’s especially true of allstar shortstop Trevor Story. He was a powerful force during the regular season, hitting .291 with 37 home runs, 42 doubles and a .914 OPS. In the first two games of the NLDS he’s 0for8 with five strikeouts.
What adjustments must Story make with Colorado’s season on the brink?
“Just slowing myself down, mentally and physically,” he said. “Maybe I got a little quick there at times, leads to chasing bad pitches. That’s been the fight for me all year, slowing myself down, just staying in control of my body at all times.”
Brewers lefthander Wade Miley, who’s scheduled to start Game 3, is 31 with a 4.76 ERA at Coors Field. He respects Nolan Arenado and Story — the heart of the Rockies order — but he’s not intimidated.
“Our pitchers have done a great job all year with every lineup,” he said Saturday. “Obviously with Colorado, you’ve got their guys in the middle of the lineup that are bangers, but at the same time as a pitching staff we have to go out and trust our stuff, trust our catcher and know that we’ve got seven guys behind us ready to make plays.
“You can’t be scared of contact even here in Colorado. You’ve just got to go out and keep the same game plan and just make pitches.”
Center fielder Charlie Blackmon (1for8) shot down the idea that he, or his teammates, were pressing during the first two games in front of a loud, energetic crowd at Miller Park.
“I was in control of my emotions, I didn’t let the atmosphere get the best of me,” he said. “I felt like I took some good swings. I felt like I had some near misses. They made some good pitches.”
Blackmon also said the Rockies just missed on some big hits that could have turned around two tight games.
“I feel like I swung the bat better than maybe the results would indicate. I feel like a few other guys were in the same boat,” he said. “And then it’s possible that some guys were still trying to cope with the atmosphere of the playoffs. I don’t think that’s the case.
“Most of our guys — they’ve been there, done that. So it’s kind of hard to say why we haven’t scored as many runs as we should have. But I don’t think there’s reason to start changing swings or hitting the panic button or anything like that. I think that’s just kind of how it turned out.”