Rockies’ freefall threatens to land them among baseball’s all-time worst

The Colorado Rockies’ seven-game losing streak has put them back on pace for 100 losses.

The club had been playing decently in June and July, echoing their near-.500 April, but their post-trade deadline talent depletion coupled with injuries has put the Rockies back to where they were in May. Yes, the Rockies are much better than last year, yet they’re still the worst team in Major League Baseball. And while the arrow might be pointing up for the first time at 20th and Blake in a while, the goal of dodging triple-digit losses could be fading.

Now in danger of a fourth straight season of 100-losses, the Rockies would tie three other franchises for second-most consecutive 100-loss seasons in MLB history. Two of those teams were just born expansion teams in New York and Washington while Boston, who was the second-most important club in their town and went on to sweep the World Series in 1914 so improbably they’re known as the Miracle Braves. The worst stretch of play? Philadelphia was also the second-most important club in their town and it was during a World War (in part of a larger stretch of baseball where they won one postseason game from 1883 through 1976).

Most consecutive 100-loss seasons in MLB history

5 — Philadelphia Phillies (NL) 1938-42
4 — Boston Braves (NL) 1909-12
4 — New York Mets (NL) 1962-65
4 — Washington Senators (AL) 1961-64

The Rockies enter play Tuesday at 50-81 with their losing streak reaching seven — including a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers and a sweep by Cleveland that gave the club its longest home losing streak in Coors Field history at nine games. Their run differential sits at minus-146, worst in the National League and second-worst in baseball behind only the Athletics’ minus-190.

The math is straightforward. With 31 games remaining, Colorado needs to go 13-18 — a .419 clip — to finish with 99 losses and avoid the ignominy of a fourth consecutive triple-digit loss season. That doesn’t sound impossible until you consider the Rockies are playing .382 ball on the season and are playing some of the worst ball of the season now after they let go of some of their key talent.

Their road record is a dismal 23-43, and they’ve played just one of their seven games on this trip that goes through Washington and Atlanta — the NL’s best team at home.

The broader arc still matters. Before this three-year run of 100-loss seasons (59-103 in 2023, 61-101 in 2024, 43-119 in 2025), the Rockies had never lost 100 games in a single season across their first 30 years of existence. Now they’re trying to avoid doing it for a fourth consecutive year — a feat accomplished only by expansion teams finding their footing, a pre-modern Braves club that became legends overnight, and a wartime Phillies team that was functionally an afterthought in its own city.

The Rockies, notably, are none of those things. They’re in their third decade as a franchise in a one-team market with a new ownership stake from the Penner family and a farm system that is, by most evaluations, finally producing. The 2025-to-2026 improvement — already at least seven wins with a month to play — represent the case that the arrow is pointing up.

Yet a fourth 100-loss season is a fourth 100-loss season, regardless of context. And right now, the Rockies aren’t playing like a team that can outrun history.

Related

Rockies done in by disastrous inning as they drop seventh straightRockies to call up pitching prospect Mason Adams just weeks after deadline dealRockies lose ninth-straight at home, conclude 0-6 homestandLarry Walker statue unveiled at Coors FieldRockies fall to 0-5 in homestand, drop eighth-straight at Coors FieldRockies’ early lead vanishes as Guardians pull away for rout