Rockies get a nice shutout win, but still have worst road record in MLB
Sep 14, 2022, 4:55 PM
The 2022 Colorado Rockies are still playing baseball.
While all eyes are on the Broncos disastrous Week 1 loss and looming seasons for the Avalanche and Nuggets, the Rockies season still has another 19 games.
Colorado earned a nice shutout win on Wednesday afternoon against the Chicago White Sox, 3-0. Local kid Kyle Freeland was excellent, pitching 6 2/3 innings, scattering seven hits and striking out five. Freeland earned the win and improved to 9-9 on the season, while lowering his ERA to 4.43.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is the victory improved the Rockies to just 62-81 on the season. They’re 37 games back of the Dodgers in the NL West, which is a formality, considering L.A. clinched the division title on Tuesday night. Even if the Rockies win every game the rest of the way (they won’t), Colorado would finish at 81-81 and .500 on the season.
They’ve been decent at Coors Field, posting a 40-34 record. The problem, as it’s been for the entire history of the franchise, is the road. Wednesday’s win improved the team’s record to just 22-47 away from 20th and Blake. That’s the worst mark in all of MLB.
Every team in the NL has at least 27 road victories, or five more than the Rox. In the AL, Kansas City is 23-44 on the road and Detroit is 24-46. That’s not company you want to keep.
In the year’s the Rockies are good, postseason good, they actually play decent baseball away from home. They made the playoffs in 2017 and 2018, posting 41-40 and 44-38 road records, respectively, in those two seasons. Back in 2009 the mark away from home was 41-40. In 2007, the World Series year, it was 39-42.
This is all to point out the Rockies don’t have to be world beaters outside of Coors Field. In fact, playing .500 baseball is good enough. Colorado should win 50 games every year at home. If they go 41-40 on the road, that would be 91 wins. With baseball’s newly expanded playoffs, that’s more than enough victories to make the dance.
In another season to forget, it’s once again the road that has plagued the Rockies. Considering they finish the season with six games in L.A. against the Dodgers (yes, six), they’ll almost certainly post the worst road record in the big leagues this year.
And until they can figure out how to fix that, they’ll continue to play golf and not baseball in October.
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