Colorado Rockies: Bats Awaken but LA Dodgers Take Opener

The Colorado Rockies are finding some offensive punch (sort of) but could not overcome a sub-par pitching performance in the Home Opener.

Remember the Colorado Rockies’  Tyler Anderson last year? That is not precisely how he has started out this year as the big lefty struggled again in his second start of the season.

Anderson surrendered nine hits including two home-runs, three walks and six runs in just four innings for the Rockies on Friday’s home opener.  It was the second poor outing for Anderson of the season after giving up nine hits and five runs in five innings in Miami on March 30th.  For a man that had 16 quality starts out of 32 total in 2018, it’s a stumble out of the gates that he will almost certainly overcome.

For Friday’s game, though, it vaulted the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-1 lead that Colorado could not overcome.

There’s good news, a previously stagnant offense produced 10 hits and six runs, including home runs from David Dahl (his first) and Trevor Story (his second and third) and RBI from Dahl, Story and Nolan Arenado. Charlie Blackmon had three hits on the day.

So, while it’s good news that the offense has shown signs of life, those signs are really only coming from four players (Blackmon, Story, Arenado, Dahl) and even then, Story still sits at a .233 average for the season.

Fortunately, the MLB season is long and Colorado will go through boom-or-bust iterations all summer.  What matters is that they stay in contact with League and Division competition and get themselves right for a September charge.  The Rockies fizzled in the late-season last year, culminating in the NLDS where they mustered just two runs in a sweep by the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers will be back at it on Saturday evening (6:10 PM start) at Coors with Walker Buehler taking the pill for the Dodgers and Jon Gray, fresh from a 10-strikeout performance, for the Rox.  Let’s hope the bats stay live, with contributions from the entire roster and that Gray has returned to form.

At 3-5, the Rockies already are in a position where they need wins to stay relevant in the stacked NL and NL West.