Rockies End Roadtrip in Disappointing Fashion – Face Difficult July Schedule

Colorado’s roadtrip began in Cleveland where they took two out of three from the Indians.  The Rockies then made their first trip to the New Yankee Stadium and won the first of three.  The roadtrip would end with a three-game slide as the Rockies would lose the last two to the Yankees and then lose a make-up game to the Chicago Cubs on Monday afternoon.

There were some positives to take away from last week’s roadtrip, however.  Ty Wigginton hit five home runs in seven games, including having a pair of multi-home run games.  Carlos Gonzalez keeps hitting well in the leadoff spot in the order.  He homered twice in the loss to the Cubs on Monday.  And Ubaldo Jimenez had a solid outing at Yankee Stadium, helping Colorado to their only win over the weekend.

As the calendar flips to July, a look at the Rockies upcoming schedule reveals a difficult stretch of games.  Sandwiched around the All-Star break are games against the Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers, Arizona Diamondbacks and the surprisingly above .500 Washington Nationals.  All four of these teams currently sit above .500 and have been playing extremely well.

Just prior to that difficult stretch, the Rockies are home for six straight against American League Central opponents.  Both the Chicago White Sox and the Kansas City Royals are below .500.  These games provide a great opportunity for Colorado to gain some much needed momentum heading into their tough stretch of games and the All-Star break.

Quick question: What do the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks and even the Washington Nationals have in common?  All of those teams can be classified as contending.  If you take a glance at the National League Standings, you will see that all of those teams have a good or great record at home.  What’s Colorado’s record at home you ask?  Just 19-19.  Yes, baseball fans expected the Rockies to contend this season and many of them still probably do.  But if they don’t start winning a majority of their games at home it won’t happen.  They have an opportunity this week to start winning home games they should be winning.