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Rockies' Recent Road Trips

I've speculated before that part of the Rockies' difficulties on the road, and their horrendous home/road splits, are due to the difficulty in adjusting to "normal" breaking pitches. Air density is somewhere around 15% less in Denver than at sea level, and this directly affects the amount of movement that a pitch will have. When the Rockies hit the road after spending some time in Denver, they are suddenly confronted by pitches with more movement than they have seen recently.

The series in San Fransisco seemed further proof of this, so I did a little bit of checking. In the first two games of each of the last three road series, the Rockies have scored zero runs twice, three runs on three occasions, and five runs once. For the season, they are averaging 3.65 runs in the first two games of a road series, versus 4.3 runs per away game overall. (Note that this is a very small sample; there have only been 10 road series so far this season.)

Part of why I bring this up is that the Rockies seem unlikely to overtake the Dodgers at this point, and they will not have home field advantage during the playoffs. In a short playoff series, they cannot afford to give away several games at the beginning of a series because the offense is struggling with breaking pitches. Combine this with the fact that you are usually facing the best pitchers in the first two games, and they could get in a hole early. I don't know how to compensate for this effect, but perhaps more BP when traveling to a new city would help. Is there any way for the hitters to see realistic curves and sliders before getting into the game? It seems like batting practice is usually soft pitches right down the middle.

Eat. Drink. Be Merry. But the above FanPost does not necessarily reflect the attitudes, opinions, or views of Purple Row's staff (unless, of course, it's written by the staff [and even then, it still might not]).

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