At dreadful 40 games below .500, Rockies interim manager pleads: ‘Stick with us’

For the Colorado Rockies, the losses keep accumulating.

They fell for the seventh consecutive time on Saturday. Their 8-2 defeat to the New York Mets sealed their 22nd consecutive series loss, extending a major-league record streak.

They now have four losing streaks of at least seven games before the month of June — which means they have as many skids of seven or more games in the last two months as they had in the previous four seasons combined.

So, in the postgame press conference at Citi Field, it led to an obvious question posed at interim manager Warren Schaeffer: What would you say to Rockies fans who want to see progress — but see a team off to the worst start in major-league history?

“I say stick with us,” Schaeffer said, “and I think you are seeing progress if you’re watching games closely.

“Today was not our best game, admittedly. But we’ve been playing good baseball for the past … 10 days. Just haven’t had the Ws coming.”

If you go by margin, Schaeffer has a point — excepting Saturday’s defeat, of course, as he noted. Colorado’s five losses from Sunday through Friday were by a total of seven runs, including three one-run defeats.

In a five-game losing streak preceding a May 23 win over the New York Yankees, Colorado’s run differential was minus-16.

Of course, the first game of the Rockies’ current seven-game skid saw a 13-1 defeat that included a blooper for the ages.

Schaeffer has known only the Rockies organization since being drafted out of Virginia Tech in 2007 before advancing as high as AAA Colorado Springs in the minor leagues prior to starting his coaching and managing journey.

He has taken an optimistic view during his 20 days as manager. One can’t blame him for doing so. Nor can one fault his response to the query. What else can he say?

LOOKING AT THE ROCKIES SINCE THE MANAGERIAL CHANGE …

From a win-loss perspective, the form has been similar — and on a percentage basis, slightly worse.

Colorado was 7-33 — playing .175 ball — before firing Bud Black on May 11. The team has gone 2-16 — a .111 win rate — since then. Two-thirds of the games under Schaeffer have been on the road, where Colorado is a ghastly 3-27 compared with a still-dreadful — but comparatively competitive — 6-22.

On the day the Rockies dismissed Black, general manager Bill Schmidt cited the pattern of the season as part of the cause for a change.

“I think you just look how we’ve been playing last month, probably more so, right? You win a game, you lose eight. You win a game, lose eight,” Schmidt said May 11.

“Everything in total played a part, just not one game … I think there just comes a point where you have to change the leadership of the group and maybe a different voice.”

Since firing Black, the pattern has remained similar. Colorado lost four games under Schaeffer, then won a wild 14-12 game at Arizona.

The Rox lost their next five games, then defeated the New York Yankees on May 23. They haven’t won since; their skid reached seven games Saturday.

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