The Rockies blew it. Let’s get that straight right here in the first paragraph. They blew it, and that’s all there is to it.
Question is, how do you define “it”?
The answer is you don’t. You can’t. Not yet. Like so many other things in baseball, it takes time.
In the end, it may not matter — losing all these games they should have won, that is. In the end, the National League West may prove to be so thoroughly mediocre that the Rockies can’t help but win the division.
If history is any indication, their best baseball is ahead of them. If so, the Rockies may win the West with ease. In that case, their early-season struggles will be looked at as a nuisance or a footnote, not a defining time in their season.
But at the very least, the Rockies have made things tougher on themselves. At the very least, they’ve blown a chance to jump to a huge lead in the division.
Truth is, the Rockies should have the biggest lead of any division leader in the major leagues. Instead, as we speak, they’re one game ahead of the Giants. One.
To use my teenage daughter’s favorite word . . . really? One game? That’s when the Rockies’ hitting struggles really hit home. They went into Sunday hitting .237, 12th in the National League.
Yeah, I know, offensive numbers are down throughout the industry as the steroids era fades into history. And Old Man Winter has been stalking the Rockies from the season’s earliest moments.
But .237? If the Rockies were just at .250, they would have a five- or six- game lead in the division, maybe more. Their pitching, recent bullpen meltdowns and all, has been that good.
Their team ERA was 3.53 in April. That was the best in franchise history, and 20 years from now I suspect it still will be the best in franchise history.
The Giants, meanwhile, are struggling with the bats almost as much as the Rockies. And the Padres have been historically bad at the plate since Adrian Gonzalez was traded to Boston.
Arizona? If you’ve seen the Diamondbacks, I don’t have to tell you they’re in the midst of rebuilding their pitching staff. The Dodgers? They’re like the rest of us here in middle-of-the-road America. They’re just trying to pay the bills.
Amazing as it seems, the Rockies have been the best team in the division. When it’s all said and done, they may win their first-ever NL West title.
If not, they’ll be blaming the early- season sounds of silence in their bats.
