“It was all good just a week ago,” Jay Z rapped on his appropriately named 1998 hit “A Week Ago.” The song is about how Jay Z has nice things: money, cars, women, jewelry, which were probably acquired by illegal means. But then it becomes more difficult for Jay Z to enjoy those nice things when one of his friends tells the police about Jay Z’s illegal activities.
The Colorado Rockies know the feeling. Not the feeling of another MLB team snitching on them. But the one of feeling swell one minute — and then feeling like it all faded away the next.
The Rockies had a rough week. They started it by dropping three straight games on the road to the Marlins in Miami and ended it by dropping two more to the Yankees and Arizona.
They finished the week 2-5 — this on the heels of winning eight of their previous 10 — and now sit 34-38, 12 games behind the NL-West leading Giants and six behind the L.A. Dodgers. The ground the team made up over that hot 10-game stretch has vanished.
At the beginning of the week it was the hitting; Colorado’s bats uncharacteristically went cold in Miami. They got one-hit and two-hit over the course of the four-game series.
The bats seemed to wake up on Monday when the Rockies, as only they could, smashed five solo home runs in a 5-3 win.
But then at the end of the week the Rockies’ pitching once again began to resemble, well, the Rockies’ pitching. The Colorado bullpen — the owners of a 4.53 ERA — blew an 8-4 lead against the Yankees on Wednesday in a 9-8 loss. On Thursday, the Rockies fought back from a three-run deficit only for closer Carlos Estevez to give up a two-out RBI-single that allowed the Diamondbacks to win.
To top the brutal week off, Colorado’s best starting pitcher this season, Tyler Chatwood, hit the 15-day DL with with a strained back.
So yeah. Not great, Bob.
The Rockies will try to right the ship starting Friday night against the Diamondbacks at home. They’ll finish out their series against Arizona Sunday, then take on the Toronto Blue Jays at Coors Field in a three-game set.
