{"id":60344,"date":"2023-08-09T14:00:25","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T18:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=60344"},"modified":"2023-08-09T11:44:39","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T15:44:39","slug":"rockies-playing-500-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/08\/09\/rockies-playing-500-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"The Colorado Rockies Keep On Pushing in the Second Half"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first half of the 2023 season, the\u00a0<\/span>Colorado Rockies<\/span><\/a>\u00a0managed an abysmal 34-57 record, a winning percentage of .374. Somehow, through the first 22 games since the All-Star break, they find themselves with an 11-11 record or a winning percentage of .500.\u00a0<\/span>Making the feat even more impressive is the four-game losing streak they are enduring in these past 22 games, making them 11-7, barring that small streak. Everything has stayed the same since the first half. They got worse over the trade deadline as they\u00a0<\/span>traded multiple big leaguers<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for minor leagues that will not impact the MLB team in 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe the team became inspired by Elias Diaz’s\u00a0<\/span>All-Star Game MVP performance<\/span><\/a>, or they played worse competition. Nonetheless, seeing a bottom-feeding group performing as a league-average one is still surprising.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rockies Second Half Breakdown<\/h2>\n

First vs. Second Half Rockies\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the 81 games to start the year, opponents outscored the Rockies 540-393 and generally had their way with the team. That part is no different in these past 22 games, as the Rockies have been outscored 112-94. How are they doing it with such a drastic difference in runs with being .500?<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer is simple. Several of their losses have been blowouts, while their wins are generally in their closer games. While the Rockies have improved record-wise over this span, their standings still need to. Entering the All-Star break, they were 18.0 games back of the NL West. Now they find themselves 21.5 games.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another exciting aspect adding to the weirdness of their current run is that they are not significant in any way they previously were not. While they are 5-3 in one-run games post-break, they were also 13-10 in the first half.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Post-All-Star Break Games\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Starting the second half was a game against the\u00a0<\/span>New York Yankees<\/span><\/a>\u00a0at Coors Field. Austin Gomber went six strong innings in an eventual 7-2 Rockies win. Nothing spectacular, but certainly an impressive result regardless.<\/span><\/p>\n

That five-run win tied for the most significant margin of victory the team has managed since the break, a feat they accomplished twice more. The first being against the\u00a0<\/span>Miami Marlins<\/span><\/a>, a 6-1 win on July 21, with the second being a recent 9-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on August 4.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite having multiple five-run wins, their losses have been far more drastic on numerous occasions. A July 29 bout against the\u00a0<\/span>Oakland Athletics<\/span><\/a>\u00a0saw them lose by eight, an August 2 against the\u00a0<\/span>San Diego Padres<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was a 10-run loss, and even more recently, the August 7 matchup with the\u00a0<\/span>Milwaukee Brewers<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was an 11-run loss.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rockies Key Contributors\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Several players have been playing well during this good stretch, but neither of the most significant vital bats has been that surprising.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The two best batters left after the trade deadline are Ryan McMahon and Nolan Jones, with both players carrying the weight of the lineup recently. McMahon has posted a .811 OPS since the break, and Jones a .896 OPS, just above their season production levels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for pitching, the aforementioned Gomber has easily been a highlight. In five starts, he has gone 30.0 innings to a 2.40 ERA while striking out 3.6 batters to each walk given up. Matt Koch has been leading the way for relievers. He’s posted a 2.19 ERA over 12.1 innings of work in the second half, impressive for a guy far from a household name.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Seeing the Rockies play .500 ball is a treat, given their production over the past few years, but once they close out their current series against the Brewers, they have a\u00a0<\/span>tough road ahead<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Next is a road series against the\u00a0<\/span>Los Angeles Dodgers<\/span><\/a>, then a homestand featuring the struggling, but still good,\u00a0<\/span>Arizona Diamondbacks<\/span><\/a>. It seems challenging, but the potentially surging Rockies might have the juice to keep the winning ways going, at least for a bit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

Players Mentioned: Elias D\u00edaz<\/a>, Austin Gomber<\/a>, Ryan McMahon<\/a>, Nolan Jones<\/a>, Matt Koch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first half of the 2023 season, the\u00a0Colorado Rockies\u00a0managed an abysmal 34-57 record, a winning percentage of .374. Somehow, through the first 22 games since the All-Star break, they find themselves with an 11-11 record or a winning percentage of .500.\u00a0Making the feat even more impressive is the four-game losing streak they are enduring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4425,"featured_media":60348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1071],"tags":[4560,3068,2936,3041],"class_list":["post-60344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rockies","category-mlb","tag-austin-gomber","tag-elias-diaz","tag-nolan-jones","tag-ryan-mcmahon"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}