Colorado Rockies continue their free fall on fireworks night

The Colorado Rockies seem to have their minds in a different place. The way they have been playing, they certainly can’t be thinking about playing baseball.

On Friday night, in front of fans more eager to watch the post-game fireworks show than the terrible product on the field, the Rockies looked as bad as ever. Before the fireworks started, the Diamondbacks had rubbed salt in the wound of a terrible season, winning 15-5.

The Diamondbacks scored in eight of the nine innings, only leaving the second inning without notching a run. Drew Pomeranz and Alex White combined to pitch 4-1/3 innings, giving up nine earned runs on nine hits. They combined to walk nine batters.

The Rockies seemed like they had overcome the hurdle of losing 100 games a few weeks back. However, they currently are looking at needing to win five games out of the final 12 in order to avoid that dubious mark for the first time in franchise history. Five wins may not seem like too much to ask for, but the way this team is playing, they might not win another game.

With Pomeranz struggling, and White not doing much to help eat some innings, the overworked and tired bullpen was exposed again. Josh Roenicke, one of the few reasons this team hasn’t already recorded their 100th loss, gave up a two-run home run to Kelly Johnson. Josh Outman also gave up a homer and every pitcher who took the mound for the Rockies gave up at least a run. The strength of this team had been the bullpen, but the lack of effectiveness, coupled with the Rockies hair-brained pitching theory, has worn the bullpen down to sawdust.

September is getting close to it’s end. The finale of the Rockies regular season cannot come soon enough. Playing out the string of the schedule seems like a huge burden for this team, and unfortunately for the fans, it has become a trend in September in the past three seasons. Instead of finishing strong, the Rockies pack it in.

Playing when the game doesn’t matter is tough on anyone. However, it speaks to the team’s character when they can’t even go out and compete when the end of the season is approaching. Sure, it has been a terribly tough season, and no one is happy with the results, but the options are to pretend it never happened and play hard, or simply sulk and pack it in, showing up but not much more until the season ends.

The lack of effort also speaks to the front office and management. It suggests that no one is capable of motivating this team and that no one is the captain of the ship. The players aren’t getting the message. This is the time for a manager to re-emphasize how important it is to get better and improve. Some guys are playing for a position in 2013, and the rest are in dire need of improvement in order to show that they belong at the big league level. This is their chance to do that. With that in mind, no one has been able to tell that to the Rockies and they continue to get massacred in lackluster fashion.

With a terrible season looking like it is going to end on a terrible note, the worst thing that ownership can do is leave things as they are in the front office. If nothing happens it is a clear sign that the Rockies have no accountability. It is a signal to the front office that winning isn’t very important and having bad years is acceptable. That is not the message that needs to be sent.

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