From ESPN Stats: “Rockies have lost 16 straight games on Sundays. Now tied with 1927-28 and 1960 Phillies for the longest losing streak on Sundays since 1900.”
This is obviously just “one of those things” that happens in baseball. I don’t think anyone can really explain it. There are the facts about how high the Rockies ERA is on Sunday’s versus their batting average, but those are the stats from Sunday and WHY those stats are at those levels is anyone’s guess.
Below is a quick recap of each of the 16 losses but there are a few things I noticed:
- The Rockies are currently 53-62 and if the Rockies even played .500 baseball on Sundays this year (currently 2-16) they would add seven wins to their record and would only be two games under .500 instead of nine.
- They would be three games behind the San Francisco Giants in the West as opposed to 10.
- Matt Belisle’s name sure appears a lot below as the guy out of the bullpen who either puts the Rockies down for good or gives up a lead.
- Eight of the losses are by two runs or less.
- Ubaldo Jimenez pitched a total of 27.1 innings and allowed 16 runs (5.27 ERA). Take out the eight inning, two-run performance against the Brewers on May 22nd and Ubaldo’s ERA on Sundays for the Rockies was 6.52.
- The super quartet of Ryan Vogelsong (14.1IP, 1ER, 5H), Kyle Lohse(6 IP, 2ER, 6H), Randy Wolf (7IP, 1ER, 4H) and Micah Owings (5IP, 0ER, 2H) has limited the Rockies to four runs in 32 1/3 innings on Sundays this year. That is a microscopic ERA of 1.11.
- On Sundays in 2011 the Rockies have scored a total of 58 runs (43 in their 16 straight losses). That equates to 3.22 runs on Sundays (2.69 during their losing streak). On any day other than Sunday the Rockies have scored a total of 460 runs and that equates to 4.74 runs per game.
Loss 1: April 24th, 3-6 at Florida: Belisle gives up three runs in the bottom of the eighth after the Rockies had tied the game at 3-3 in the top half of the eighth inning.
Loss 2: May 1st, 4-8 v Pittsburgh: Only four innings from Jimenez in which he gave up four runs and then Esmil Rogers gave up four of his own and those eight runs were four more than the Rockies could score off of Charlie Morton.
Loss 3: May 8th, 0-3 at San Francisco: Jorge De La Rosa, remember that guy? Well, he allowed three runs across six innings. Ryan Vogelsong only gave up one hit over 6 1/3 innings.
Loss 4: May 15th, 2-8 v San Diego: With the Rockies trailing 2-3 going into the top of the seventh Jason Hammel (three runs allowed in seventh), Franklin Morales (one run) and Felipe Paulino (one run) drive the nail into the Rockies coffin.
Loss 5: May 22nd, 1-3 at Milwaukee: Jimenez throws eight innings (complete game) of three-run baseball but the Rockies could only muster four hits (two more than the Brewers) and one run.
Loss 6: May 29th, 3-4 v St. Louis: A bad first inning for Jhoulys Chacin in which he gave up three runs was almost all the Cardinals needed. Colby Rasmus hit a solo home run in the fourth for the eventual game winning run. Rockies tried to come back in the bottom of the ninth by cutting the deficit to one but Carlos Gonzalez grounded out to end the game.
Loss 7: June 5th, 1-2 at San Francisco: Ryan freaking Vogelsong throws eight innings of one run baseball. While Vogelsong is having a comeback year the Rockies offense starts the trend on Sunday’s of making mediocre pitching looking Cy Young worthy.
Loss 8: June 12th, 8-10 v Los Angeles: Seth Smith hits a three-run home run in the bottom of the first. Jimenez gives up five runs in the third and seven runs overall. The Rockies offense cuts the deficit to 7-9 in the bottom of the seventh and Rafael Betancourt gives one back in the top of the eighth. The Rockies tried to come back in the ninth but only scored one run.
Loss 9: June 19th, 1-9 v Detroit: The Rockies run into Justin Verlander and with the way he is pitching in 2011 they were lucky to get one run. Aaron Cook gives up eight hits in six innings for four runs and that was enough for Verlander.
Loss 10: June 26th, 4-6 at New York: Juan Nicasio throws four clean innings against possibly the best offense in baseball but then losses it in the fifth to give up three runs and then one more in the sixth. Belisle gives up a run in the seventh to put the Rockies down for good.
Loss 11: July 3rd, 8-16 v Kansas City: The Rockies offense wakes up for once on a Sunday and scores eight runs in the fifth and sixth innings but Hammel (six runs), Belisle (six runs) and Clayton Mortensen (four runs) give the Rockies no chance to win the game.
Loss 12: July 10th, 0-2 at Washington: Chacin pitches brilliantly across seven innings but the Rockies offense struggles once again with only six hits on the day.
Loss 13: July 17th, 3-4 v Milwaukee: Cook gives up three runs in less than five innings and Belisle tacks on one of his own. The Rockies offense scraps together three runs in another Sunday struggle.
Loss 14: July 24th, 0-7 at Arizona: Micah Owings makes a spot start and shuts down the Rockies in five innings of two-hit baseball. Jimenez gives up five runs in five innings.
Loss 15: July 31st, 3-8 at San Diego: Rex Brothers and Belisle combine to give up six runs in the bottom of the eighth. Nicasio only gave up five hits in seven innings of work.
Loss 16: September 7th, 2-3 v Washington: top of the eighth Belisle gives up go ahead run. The Rockies waste one of the best outings of the year from Cook. Cook pitched 6 2/3 innings of two run baseball (two-run home run) and he only allowed four hits and three walks.
In the few games the Rockies scored more than four runs (July 3rd and June 10th) the Rockies pitching gets shelled for 26 runs total in those two games. The offense has been bad on Sundays and in the rare event they do score multiple runs the pitcher is nowhere to be found. There have been quite a few Sundays in which the pitching has been spectacular and those just happen to be the day when the Rockies only get a handful of base runners and can’t push any of them across the plate.
This trend simply cannot continue. Not because the Rockies need it to stop, it just has to because it is such a statistical anamoly that it cannot continue. Sooner or later they have to win on a Sunday.
Right?
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2 comments
Rex Silo
August 8, 2011 at 5:15 PM (UTC -6)
My guess is it might have something to do with our best player of 2011 not playing in most day games after night games. How many of those games were started by Helton?
Rockies17
August 9, 2011 at 12:58 AM (UTC -6)
Hey – just thought I’d point out a minor error (that actually makes your point stronger):
You say, “The Rockies are currently 53-62 and if the Rockies even played .500 baseball on Sundays this year (currently 2-16) they would add seven wins to their record and would only be two games under .500 instead of nine.”
Actually the Rockies would be 5 games OVER .500 (60-55) if that were the case – a 7 game improvement gives them a +14 increase in terms of +/- .500 since the difference between a win and a loss is 2 points when comparing W-L.
But very sad to think that 6 days a week we have been a really competitive team… What happened to “resting on the Sabbath?” Think how different the division race would be!
On another note, the GIants and D=backs look awful right now and it is really too bad we are 9 GB… But hey if they play .500 the rest of the way we only have to go 33-13 to win the division!