Coors Equilibrium

Well, this is just great, huh?  The Rockies follow up a three-game sweep of the Yankees by ... getting swept in their next two series.  I call this Coors Equilibrium.  A stretch of brilliantly-played baseball, followed immediately by a stretch of mediocre or worse play.  The 20-7 stretch from May 22 to June 21 obviously wasn't going to last forever -- even the best teams don't play .740 baseball over an entire season, as that would equate to a 120-42 record, which nobody's ever done -- but did anyone expect it to come crashing down so suddenly?

I think what may become the turning point of the Rockies' season, when all is said and done (and no, I don't mean this in a good way) was the 10th inning on Friday night in Toronto.  Tulo homers to put the Rockies up two in the top of the 10th, and everything's good, right?  Then Fuentes can't nail the door shut.  Then Iannetta botches things even further by throwing the ball into the outfield and allowing the winning run to score.

That started the Streak of Very Bad Things.  Immediately following was a pretty awful start by Aaron Cook that resulted in an 11-6 loss.  Then, the offense, evidently bored with scoring a bunch of runs and losing because of poor pitching, decided to shut it off the next day and get no-hit for eight innings by Dustin Freaking McGowan.  Then, on Monday night, the Rockies inexplicably erased a five-run deficit in the ninth inning, capped by another Tulo homer that gave the Rockies a one-run lead and led to a crazed Cubs fan running out on the field at Cubs pitcher Bob Howry.  Of course, Fuentes again blew the save.  Rodrigo Lopez then decided he'd join the rest of the starting rotation by mailing it in in an 8-5 loss (only the second game Rodrigo's started this season that the Rockies have lost.)  Then the Rockies got shut down by Carlos Zambrano today.

At this point, it's almost too obvious to rag on the bullpen, but they're certainly the weak point of this team, and the 'pen turned two losses into wins this week.  That alone would be the difference between being two games over .500 and two games under.  But the starting pitching isn't any good, either.  Anybody who still thinks that the Rockies are selectively using the humidor to influence the outcome of games needs only look at Jason Hirsh's 5.63 home ERA (versus a halfway-decent 4.39 on the road.)  It used to be that Rockies pitchers stunk at home and, strangely, were even worse on the road.  That really doesn't seem to be the case any more.