Rockies Preview: Road Sour Road

by Joshua Worley

Rockies home record: 35-23
Rockies home OPS for and against: 0.850 -- 0.772

The Rockies are a fine home team, whether you look at record or their underlying hitting and pitching numbers.

Rockies road record: 27-35
Rockies road OPS for and against: 0.708 -- 0.756

They just aren't the same on the road. The odd thing is that the pitching is almost identical road and home, while the hitting is vastly different. Why would this be?

Rockies fans ought to hope that management is asking this question, for it may be crucial to turning the Rockies into real contenders. I have no idea what the answer is.

The first game is supposed to match up Eric Stults with Josh Fogg. Stults at 4.5 has a lower ERA than Fogg at 4.64. I'll take that as a good sign. What it really means is that either team should feel ashamed if they don't score at least 5 runs in this game. Given the Rockies struggles on the road the Dodgers have to win this game.

The second game is Billingsley against an unidentified pitcher. At this point I'm so desperate for Dodger victories that I wouldn't mind if the Rockies just threw up their hands and forfeited the game because they didn't have a starter. Which leads to the philosophical question, is the game truly the thing, or the result? In spite of my just expressed wish for a forfeit, the game had better be the thing, right? I know I get too wrapped up in winning and losing sometimes.

The Rockies are most likely to go with Franklin Morales in this second game, according to mlb.com. But he had an awful last start in AAA so there is some question about him going. In any case the Dodgers look to have a good shot in the first two games given the Rockies road struggles and their starters in those games.

The last game tilts the Rockies way because the matchup is Francis v Tomko. Need I say more? Maybe Tomko will have one of his random decent games. I really hope the Dodgers are looking for the sweep in this last game. They could really really use one.