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The Colorado Rockies (9-7) are now just a half-game off setting the pace in the National League West, playing the only team in the division currently better than them with a chance to win a series and take the lead in the west with nine good innings tonight. Sure, it's early. But it's not that early.
It seems like we've just started the season, of course, but with 16 games completed, the Rockies are already one-tenth of the way through the summer. What? Where does the time go? Say it's early and say the Rockies' over-.500 record is a fluke all you want, but they've played pretty well for the first tenth of the summer. They just need to do that, uh, nine more times.
Today, Tyler Chatwood (2-1, 2.79) gets the nod for Colorado against the high-powered Dodgers, and if the Rockies' rehabbed righty is as good as he's been in the last few starts he's made this year, Colorado is in good shape. Perhaps more important than anything else, Chatwood has walked just two hitters in three starts; that command will bode well for the Rockies, should it continue.
He'll go up against Kenta Maeda (2-0, 0.47), a rookie... kind of... who is shoring up the Dodgers' rotation alongside Clayton Kershaw (who the Rockies won't see this series!) as Hyun-Jin Ryu and others deal with injuries early this season.
Lineups
How to watch
TV: ROOT Sports, MLB.tv
RADIO: KOA, KNRV, MLB Gameday Audio