Despite their 5-4 Sunday loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Colorado Rockies have been perhaps the greatest surprise in the Major League Baseball over the first tenth of the season. The loss, their first of the year at home, snapped an eight game win streak, as well as their eight game home winning streak.
On Sunday night the Rockies defied all odds and stood with the Atlanta Braves, the top team in baseball, with whom they began a series on Monday, posting a record of 13-5. This success comes in the face of many sports writers (myself included), fans and experts that predicted that the Rockies would once again rule the dungeon of the NL West, producing more of the same disappointment that accompanied their 2012 campaign.
However, this has been anything but the case. Colorado has been absolutely crushing the ball, leading the NL in runs, on base percentage, batting average and is a close second in home runs. This, of course, is not too surprising of the “Blake Street Bombers,” as the Rockies generally do well in the thin home air of Coors Field, which allows the ball to travel further.
Dexter Fowler finally seems to have made the leap that has been expected for years, tearing up both sides of the plate, slamming seven home runs over the first 18 games of the season. The switch hitter has always been known for his speed and defense, but has rarely been a consistent power producer at the plate, at least until this year.
The true surprise of the Rockies successful start has been their pitching, which, quite frankly, was atrocious last season and received very little offseason help in terms of outside acquisitions besides the signing of 33-year-old starter Jon Garland. Rather than get outside help, the Rockies are finally healthy, especially Jorge De La Rosa, who has posted an excellent 2.82 earned run average over four starts.
De La Rosa has not been the only pitcher to return to anchor a pitching staff that was ridiculed last year for its switch to a piggyback system that limited its starters to just 75 pitchers. Jhoulys Chacin, who was limited to 14 games in 2012, has posted a team-best 1.46 ERA, along with his 3 wins.
This duo, along with help from Juan Nicasio and Garland (Jeff Francis has been about what Rockies fans expected the staff to be, bad), has given the Rockies a legitimate chance at a successful season. This comes as a huge shock to me, as well as those experts that predicted Colorado to finish last in the division once again.
Whether their success is maintainable has yet to be seen, but man is it fun to have good baseball back in Colorado. The Rockies have regained some of their 2007 mojo that led them to the World Series, relying on superstars Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez to lead a group of overachievers to success, let’s just hope they can keep the Rockies rolling.
