How the Colorado Rockies took the road to 100 losses

The path is complete. And the last frontier of struggle for the Colorado Rockies in their 31-season history was reached Tuesday night when they fell for the 100th time this season, sealing their first 100-loss campaign.

The upset is that it took this long. This was, after all, their 22nd losing season out of 31. And even the peaks aren’t exactly 14ers; the Rockies have won more than 83 games just four times.

Yet until now, the Rockies avoided that ignominy.

“I think we can play .500 ball,” owner Dick Monfort said in January.

His team fell below .500 on April 3 and stayed there. And a tsunami of injuries ensured that his team — which had scant margin for error to begin with — effectively used its cushion well before the regular season began. The rotation never reached its intended form. Kris Bryant continued to be an injury-riddled enigma.

Here are the key dates on the road to 100:

MARCH 2: BAD NEWS FOR BRENDAN RODGERS

Spring training had not even been under way for a week when reigning Gold Glove winner Brendan Rodgers suffered a shoulder injury that proved to be worse than initially feared. He didn’t return until late July. And the news that day got worse when the Rockies lost relief pitcher Lucas Gilbreath to Tommy John surgery. It wouldn’t be the last time that TJ reared its wrath upon the Rox.

MAY 2: END OF THE YEAR FOR GERMÁN MÁRQUEZ

After making just four starts, Márquez, expected to be a linchpin of the rotation saw his season end with the news he would need Tommy John surgery. The Rockies signed him to a contract extension in September, allowing him to complete his recovery — while the Rockies effectively pay him $20 million for what is expected to be a season and a half of work.

MAY 10: ANTONIO SENZATELA SUCCUMBS IN SECOND START BACK

His return from a torn anterior cruciate ligament on May 5 was supposed to help stabilize an already wobbly rotation. He lasted just 7 2/3 innings over two starts before suffering a sprained ulnar collateral ligament.

Two months later, the decision arrived: Tommy John surgery. The hope is that Senzatela can return to the rotation late in 2024.

MAY 14: RYAN FELTNER STRUCK BY A LINE DRIVE

You come to expect UCL injuries. What happened to Ryan Feltner was an accident as frightening as it was freakish — a line drive to the head that resulted din a concussion and a skull fracture during a start in Philadelphia. Feltner eventually returned and dazzled, pitching five scoreless innings in his Sept. 19 return to the rotation. But with that injury, a mother piece fell off the rotation.

A day after Feltner’s injury, first baseman C.J. Cron landed on the injured list with back spasms.

JUNE 1: KRIS BRYANT’S FIRST INJURY

It began again for the Rockies’ $182 million man, as he landed on the injured list with a left-heel injury. He returned June 30, but fractured a finger in July and landed on the injured list again.

The Rockies are actually not abject with Bryant in the lineup. They hold a 54-66 record when he’s on the lineup card over the last two seasons. That would extrapolate to a 73-89 record over 162 games. But without Bryant, they are 71-128 — which would translate to a 58-104 pace. This season, the Rockies are 34-44 with Bryant and 23-56 without him.

JUNE 10: CHARLIE BLACKMON FRACTURES HAND

Trade winds were already starting to swirl around the Rockies’ longest-tenured player when he suffered a fracture of the fifth metacarpal on his right hand. He returned Aug. 14, well after the window of any potential deadline deal had passed.

JUNE 24: 25-1

The Rockies had their “70-20” moment on June 24. Specifically, it came in the third and fourth innings, when the Rockies surrendered 21 runs — 13 in the third, 8 an inning later — en route to the most lopsided loss in Rockies history. The 21 runs were the most allowed by any MLB team in a two-inning span since 1894.

Just after the carnage ended, the Rockies dealt Mike Moustakas to the opposite clubhouse before the series finale. Colorado won the final contest of the three-game set to take the series. That’s baseball, right? But few who witnessed the Saturday-night debacle will forget the scope of it.

JULY 24: THE ROCKIES BEGIN DEALING NEAR THE DEADLINE

Missing the playoffs for the fifth-straight year was long since assured by the time the Rockies started making deals at the deadline. And while the trade of Randal Grichuk and C.J. Cron to the Angels drew more attention, the two trades that truly pushed the team toward the 100-loss abyss were the deals of relief pitchers Pierce Johnson and Brad Hand to the Atlanta Braves. The Johnson trade took place July 24; Hand went south eight days later.

While Johnson had not recaptured his Padres form and Hand was less effective in his left-hand setup role than he had been in previous years, both were core components of the Rockies bullpen.

Without the two veterans, the bullpen collapsed entirely. At one point in August, the Rockies set a modern-era record by losing six-straight games in which they led in the sixth inning or later each time.

Colorado went 42-64 through the end of July. The Rockies are 15-36 since.

AUG. 29: EVEN SECURITY BREAKS DOWN

The putative potential NL MVP, Ronald Acuña Jr., was just minding his own business in right field in the second inning when some spectators came running out of the stands — and weren’t stopped until after they’d arrived at Acuña, with the collision sending the Atlanta superstar tumbling.

The Rockies lost that night — and then lost twice more to Atlanta. For the season, the Rockies went winless against the eventual NL East champions, losing seven games by a ghastly 64-20 collective count. Sometimes baseball yields outlier results, but that never happened when the top and bottom teams of the NL’s regular-season table met this year.

AND YET, THERE IS HOPE

Through the rubble, flowers still bloomed. Last November’s trade with the Cleveland Guardians for Nolan Jones looks like a first-class heist; with outstanding range to go with a power bat, Jones could push for the All-Star Game next season. Brenton Doyle could be a Gold Glover in the making in center field; he showed some spark at the plate in the season’s final weeks. Ty Blach got stretched out and sprinkled some dominant starting appearances, including one in which he neutralized Baltimore’s potent lineup to allow the Rockies to steal a getaway-day win from the American League’s finest side. Hunter Goodman showed impressive plate discipline after his call-up. Elehuris Montero entered Tuesday with an .805 OPS in September.

In 2024, the Rockies would be wise to close the wallet, learn more about the young core and wait to see if some of the niagara of young pitchers acquired via trade and this year’s draft can show signs of bearing major-league fruit.

Because despite the despair of 100 losses, there is cause for cautious optimism at 20th and Blake.

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