After last night's game against the Giants, where are we? Tracy Ringolsby writes that there's hope, but how much reason have the Rockies given us for that, so far.
Last night the team went 3 for 7 with RISP, but the problem early was getting baserunners to second, and late it was coming up with the big hit. Chris Iannetta's homerun in the eighth was the 18th solo shot on the season for the Rockies, the other nine HR's for Colorado have been with one runner on. Leaguewide, more than 15% of all homeruns hit in 2009 have been for three runs or more, the Rockies have zero thus far.
In late and close situations as categorized by Baseball Reference, the Rockies are hitting .236/.303/.364 (the NL is hitting .251/.351/.397) and in tie games the Rockies are .207/.311/.349. The Rockies rank 15th out of 16 teams in OPS in that category, but third when the margin is greater than four runs. They rank first in hitting in the first three innings, but thirteenth in the last three. Basically what we're learning as fans is that if the Rockies don't have a big lead after three innings, we can turn the game off. Who is the biggest culprit among our regulars on late game offense? Here's the chart. The answer might surprise you, it did me. That's not to say there's not plenty of blame to be spread around, however. I would be remiss if I didn't point out Yorvit Torrealba and Clint Barmes at the top of that list as the early season's best late inning hitters thus far.
Our pitchers, btw, are dead last in the NL when it comes to OPS allowed in the late innings, but the opening innings aren't much better, we rank 14th.