There’s a beautiful noise in LoDo. And it sounds almost too good to be true. But are the Rockies for real?
“Any team can make noise in April. But respect? You have to earn it. And I think it’s pretty obvious: We are a lot more talent than noise,” outfielder Carlos Gonzalez told me. CarGo speaks from experience. He has seen some stuff. On Wednesday, he put on a Colorado uniform for his 1,000th game with the Rockies.
But you don’t have to take CarGo’s word for it. Listen to Bruce Bochy, who has won three World Series rings as manager of the Giants. The other day in San Francisco, Bochy was asked what he thought of the Colorado’s hot start.
And Bochy made it clear: The Rockies are more than hot. They’re good. “They pitch well in the bullpen. And obviously they swing the bat,” Bochy said. “This division is going to be a fight.”
Yes, it’s early in a 162-game season. But not too early to ask: Can the Rockies stay in the fight for a playoff berth all summer long? The strongest indicator is how a strong bullpen has allowed Colorado to post a 7-0 record in one-run games.
“It used to be when we were leading by one-run late in the game and I went out to right field, I thought: ‘Oh, man. I better put my batting helmet where I can find it, because when I get back to the dugout, I’m going to need to get a big hit if they tie the game,’ ” Gonzalez said. “But now it’s different. We have that feeling: ‘Yeah, it’s a one-run game, but in that situation, our bullpen says: Game over.’ ”
While folks throughout Broncos Country crawl in bed with visions of a 300-pound offensive lineman dancing in their heads, do not sleep on 22-year-old pitcher Antonio Senzatela, whose 2.08 earned-run average is the real deal. And did my ears deceive me, or was that really Jim Rome of CBS Sports Radio on the horn, talking baseball with Bud Black and giving love to the Rockies?
Long patronized by Coloradans as a sunny spot for a picnic, Coors Field owes us a contender for a change. The Rockies have made noise. But how long does it take for noise to translate into respect from the Cubs, the Dodgers and the blue bloods of the National League?
“How do you go from making noise to keeping the noise? It’s passing the test of time. That is our challenge, if we want to be more than a team that got off to a hot start,” said Black, while sitting in the Colorado dugout prior to the game against Washington, a well-established contender with one of the best pitchers (Max Scherzer) and hitters (Bryce Harper) on the planet.
Black is far too savvy and too experienced to jump to conclusions about a Colorado team so reliant on young arms in the rotation, especially with Chad Bettis fighting cancer and Jon Gray currently in a walking boot. Black, however, has seen flashes the Rockies are for real. The first sign was in San Francisco on April 15, when Tyler Chatwood allowed two hits in nine innings during a 5-0 victory. “There are certain wins that are barometers,” Black said.
And there are certain losses that sound like the bad old days of the bad new Rockies, with batters beating the stuffing out of a Colorado starting rotation that might still be too young and not quite deep enough. The Nationals rocked Chatwood, while Colorado committed silly errors in the field and on the base paths, looking less than ready for prime time during an 11-4 loss. The Rockies’ team ERA in consecutive defeats to Washington? 11.50. Ouch.
“We know there are going to peaks and valleys in this game. If we’re in one of those peaks now, let’s ride it out as long as we can,” Black said. “And if there is a valley, we’ve got to come out of that valley quick.”
Are the Rockies for real? They didn’t panic after losing Ian Desmond, Bettis or Gray. But the real test will be when there’s a bad run of games on the scoreboard, as it does in every major-league season. Can Colorado stop a two-game losing streak from becoming a week-long freefall?
The real grind in baseball, and what separates a .500 team from a playoff team? Listen to Rockies legend Vinny Castilla. “You’ve got to be strong in this game,” Castilla said. “Physically and mentally.”
