As the losses start to mount, are the Rockies contenders or pretenders?

After a hot start to the season, the Rockies have come crashing back down to earth. Last week, they a series for the first time, falling to both the Diamondbacks and Rangers at Coors Field. They followed those setbacks up by dropping two games to the Astros in Houston.

This all proceeded Colorado heading into one of their toughest stretches of the season. They have two more against the Astros, followed by a series with the Dodgers. How the Rockies fare in those matchups will show if they’re a true contender or actually a pretender.

In order to be a champion, you have to beat the defending champs. What better test than back-to-back battles against the Astros and the Dodgers?

On Monday night, Kyle Freeland threw his fifth quality start this season in a loss to Houston. Antonio Senzatela went toe-to-toe against ace Zach Grienke on Tuesday afternoon going scoreless all the way into extra innings.

This continued a season-long trend. Surprisingly, the Rockies starting pitching staff has one of the best road ERAs in all of Major League Baseball and that makes them a true contender. Although the two games against the Astros were losses, the starting rotation held the reigning American League champions to just two runs in both games. Both those runs were against Freeland in the first inning of his outing. Houston didn’t score again until yesterday afternoon in extra innings.

Tonight’s matchup will be interesting to see if the Rockies offense can find a spark. After going 3-7 the last 10 games, they’ll have to find one to give the breakout rookie Ryan Castellani his first career win. The offensive opportunities have been there, and it will just take one game for them to breakout. If they do breakout tonight or tomorrow, they will be rocking and rolling heading into a showodown against their biggest rival, the Dodgers.

On Friday night, the Rockies will have their first matchup against the heavily favored Dodgers and scheduled to face Walker Buehler. Last year, Buehler had an ERA of 3.32 and won 23 games. He also had his way against the Rockies.

Everyone on L.A.’s staff can make that claim, however. Last year, the Rockies only won four out of 19 games against the Dodgers. If anything needs to change for this Rockies team to be a contender, they have to win against the Dodgers.

In a shortened season, the Rockies will play Los Angeles 10 times, six of which will be in Dodger Stadium. With one of the lowest road ERAs in MLB, this gives the advantage to the Rockies to steal a handful of wins against a Dodgers team heavily favored to win the division and the World Series.

Baseball fans saw last year that starting pitching can win you a World Series when the Nationals won it all, even against a cheating team. How well the starting five has been dealing for the Rockies, this makes them a true contender.

Surprisingly enough, the season is already 38 percent complete. The playoff chances for the Rockies skyrocketed after their 11-3 start. With that hot of a beginning to the season, this team is a legit contender and not pretenders for the playoffs.

With an expanded postseason, and rumors of MLB creating a bubble for the chase for the World Series, that gives Colorado a huge advantage during postseason play.

It was no fluke the Rockies went back-to-back playoff appearances in 2017 and 2018. The real fluke was the disappointing 2019 season when they lost 91 games and finished fourth in the division.

The starting five pitchers are exceeding expectations, the bullpen is being managed well by Bud Black and the offense will show up in a matter of time. The Rockies are contenders and will be the scary team no one wants to face when it comes to the postseason.