clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

The Rockies win their second series of the year at home, and against the Brewers

A wrap on the Rockies win against the Brewers, an update on Carlos Gonzalez, and a nod to Tommy Kahnle.

Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

It took until June 9th for the Rockies to win a series at Coors Field this season. Now, after the lowly Brewers came into town, they have two. Combine this with their most recent 1-5 road trip, and it looks like things are on their way to getting back to normal.

Rockies break out big offense, rout Milwaukee Brewers at Coors Field - Nick Groke / Denver Post

This is the recipe that allows the Rockies to win games started by Chris Rusin. While it's obvious you're more likely to win with all pitchers when you give them more runs, it's especially true with Rusin. This is because Rusin, to his credit, limits the amount of walks he hands out. Therefore when you have a game like yesterday where the Rockies give him six runs in the first four innings, he becomes harder than you might think to mount a comeback against because you're not going to get much free help.

This doesn't change the fact that all of Rusin's pitches are either mediocre or below average and that he'll likely keep getting hit hard as long as he remains in the rotation, but it does mean that he's not a guy who's going to throw gasoline on a fire, which creates a nice rocking chair victory like the Rockies had yesterday when the opponent fails to string together a large inning after getting in a hole early.

X-Rays negative on Carlos Gonzalez's hand, but status is uncertain - Nick Groke / Denver Post

Of course, the Rockies are not really allowed to have a series with all good news, so along with the win came another potential injury problem. Carlos Gonzalez, who's steadily climbed out of his early season hole (.841 OPS since May 14th) left the game in the third inning.

The good news for CarGo is that there's an off day today, so if this is something that can fully heal with two or three days of rest, he can take it now and only miss a game or two.

Rockies signing tracker - Bryan Kilpatrick / Purple Row

Here's the link to our in house signing tracker if you want to check in on the status of the draft signings. Not much has changed here in the last 48 hours, but the big names left to watch are Peter Lambert (second round pick) and David Hill (fourth round pick). The Rockies do have a little extra slot money to throw at them thanks to the discounts they received in the Brendan Rodgers and Parker French signings, but they also had to give a little more money than expected to land Tyler Nevin, so things could get tricky.

If the Rockies do ink both Lambert and Hill before the mid July deadline, there's a real chance they had the best draft of any team in the sport.

Kahnle claiming key role in Rockies bullpen - Thomas Harding / Rockies.com

After starting the season in Triple-A to work on some things mechanically, Kahnle has looked strong in his major league outings. He' still out of the strike zone a bit too often, but he's generating plenty of swings and misses and not allowing runs to cross the plate so I'm not going to complain too much.

If he keeps throwing like this, he could be the second most trusted man in that pen (behind John Axford) by the end of the month. His velocity is also up just a tad over last year after the adjustments he made in the minors, but I'll hold off on saying that's permanent until I see how much gas he still has in the tank in August and September.

Either way, this is an arm that could be an important part of the next Rockies winning team.

Jhoulys Chacin catches on with the Diamondbacks - Bobby DeMuro / Rox Pile

One of the best pitchers in Rockies history is now a member of another organization in the division. He wants another chance to pitch in the majors, and that wasn't happened in Cleveland, so now he'll try to impress in Triple-A Reno and work his way into the Arizona rotation. If that doesn't happen quick, Chacin can elect to opt out of this deal on July 5th.