COLORADO ROCKIES

The Rockies are the hottest team in baseball led by youngsters

May 16, 2024, 2:34 PM

The Colorado Rockies are the hottest team in MLB riding a seven-game win streak and are still on pace to lose well over 100 games. Baseball is funny like that, hence the extremely long season but just because the overall year is going to go poorly in Denver doesn’t mean there can’t be some fun along the way. The last week or so has been a lot of joy for the purple.

The Rockies are now 15-28 after sweeping the world-champion Texas Rangers in Denver and the Padres in San Diego. It was the Rockies first sweep of the Padres in SoCal since 2013 and this is now Coloado’s largest win streak since 2019. Still, the streak has only put the Rockies on pace for 57 wins just past the quarter pole of the season—that would be a franchise-worst for wins in a season and yet a big improvement for the low water marks they were headed to before this week.

And they’ve been led by two of their younger more promising players in Brenton Doyle, 26, and Ezequiel Tovar, 22, who each have been two of the best players in baseball over the last week. The center fielder has hit .348 with two homers and four stolen bases during the streak while playing his normal Gold Glove defense. Tovar has also provided some great glovework while also hitting two homers during the team’s hot run of play, and he’s added a triple and four doubles over that time too.

On the mound, Austin Gomber and Cal Quantrill have both made two strong starts. The key piece in the Nolan Arenado trade, Gomber, has thrown 12.2 innings of just one earned run and 10 strikeouts in the past week. Quantrill has pitched 12 innings also with 10 strikeouts but with six walks and two earned runs. Out of the bullpen, Jalen Beeks has turned into the team’s closer, recording three saves in this stretch while not allowing a run. Tyler Kinley has also been a lights-out reliever this week.

Perhaps the best sign from Wednesday’s win was rookie Jordan Beck’s first career three-hit game, hitting his first homer and driving in five runs. While the top prospect has been off to a slow start, his performance in completing the Padres sweep might buy him more time in the bigs for now. Both Kris Bryant and Nolan Jones are rehabbing in Triple-A this week which means their returns are imminent. Bryant’s issues are well known between injury and poor performance but Jones got off to a really bad start in following up his rookie season then he got hurt. How those two will impact the Rockies lineup is unknown.

But baseball being the bizarre sport that it is, saw one of its worst teams hit a hot streak without its highest-paid player (Bryant), most promising position player (Jones) and ace (Kyle Freeland.) Maybe the Rockies can avoid 100 losses if they can stay somewhat healthy and German Marquez and Antonio Senzatela return a bit quicker than expected. Plus, Colorado’s farm system is off to a pretty nice start to the season, so maybe things aren’t as bleak at 20th and Blake as they seemed just a week ago.

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