Failure to win close games hurt Colorado on the road in 2019

Among the many items in the Rockies’ smorgasbord of failure is their inability to win on the road.

That was evident in San Francisco where the Rockies lost two of three games in their final road series of the season in which they hit 2-for-26 with runners in scoring position.

Since taking two of three games from the Giants on June 24-26, the Rockies finished 8-30 away from Coors Field, failing to win a road series over their final three months of the season.

Colorado’s final tally in games played below 5,280 feet: 28-53, the club’s worst road mark since going 21-60 in 2014.

Keep in mind that in each of the Rockies’ last three playoff seasons — 2009, 2017 and 2018 — they managed to piece together a winning road record. In other words, being able to avoid homesickness matters.

Here are elements of the Rockies’ road woes, some of which might surprise you:

— Their .230 road batting average was the worst in the National League, but it was actually better than their .225 mark from last season.

— Their 335 runs scored ranked 14th in the NL but matched last year’s total.

— They hit 92 home runs, ranking 14th in the National League, but still better than the 83 road homers they launched last season.

— Colorado’s 4.88 ERA ranked third-worst in the NL, but was actually a bit better than the 4.93 road ERA of the 2017 playoff team.

So why was the Rockies’ road record so much worse than the franchise-best 44-38 mark from a year ago?

For one thing, they lost 16 road games by one run this season, a track record that surely delivers a punch to the team’s gut.

For another, the Rockies simply weren’t good enough to beat the National League West champion Dodgers.

Colorado finished 4-15 vs. the Dodgers this season and were 1-8 at Los Angeles. Included in that carnage was three consecutive walk-off losses at Los Angeles on June 21-23, a weekend that triggered Colorado’s slide from wild-card contenders into NL West cellar dwellers.

“At the end of the day, we have to finish games. Good teams win the games that are tight,” star third baseman Nolan Arenado said after the Dodgers notched their third straight walk-off win on rookie catcher Will Smith’s three-run homer off right-hander Scott Oberg.

“(The Dodgers) are playing really good baseball, and they are winning these games,” Arenado said on that Sunday in L.A. “They are the best team in baseball, and they are playing really good ball, but at the end of the day, we lost three games.”