If the 1962 Mets were amazin’, the 2025 Rockies are truly remarkable.
Colorado now stands side-by-side in modern National League history with the ’62 Amazin’ Mets, who hold the Senior Circuit record with 120 losses. With a 6-2 defeat to the Mariners on Thursday at T-Mobile Park, the Rockies now have 116 losses in this exasperating season, joining the ’62 Mets as the worst NL teams since 1901.
Thursday’s loss passed the Rockies by the 1935 Boston Braves on the modern NL ineptitude list, as those Braves that featured Babe Ruth in his final season finished with 115 defeats. At least the modern loss record, 121 losses by the 2024 White Sox, is out of reach for Colorado.
Seattle, which used its three-game series against the Rockies to first clinch a playoff berth on Tuesday and then the American League West title on Wednesday, polished off the sweep on Thursday on a night where Colorado was never in contention.
Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer said the streak Seattle is on en route to its first postseason appearance in three years, and just its second since 2001, is something the Rockies want to eventually emulate. The Mariners have won 17 of their last 18 games.
“That’s a really good team: They’re well-balanced, they’ve got speed, they’ve got a ton of power,” Schaeffer told reporters in Seattle. “They play in ballpark which is extremely loud. It’s a definite home field advantage and they play to it and you can tell.
“They’ve got a good thing going on right now, and we need to look at that and tell ourselves, ‘This is where we want to be.’”
The Mariners took a 2-0 lead in the second via Eugenio Suárez’s homer off Bradley Blalock. Seattle added on in the fourth off Blalock with a fielder’s choice RBI by Dominic Canzone and then a two-RBI single by Randy Arozarena. Suárez then added insurance in the fifth off Anthony Molina with an RBI single to make it 6-0.
Colorado finally got on the board with Ezequiel Tovar’s RBI single in the sixth off Carlos Vargas. But that was all the scoring the Rockies could muster until garbage time, when Hunter Goodman’s two-out, RBI single in the ninth made it 6-2.
Of note, Cal Raleigh — hitting in the DH spot on Thursday — was 0 for 4 with a walk and a strikeout. The slugging, switch-hitting catcher blasted his MLB-leading 59th and 60th homers of the season on Wednesday, and now has three games remaining to try to match or surpass Aaron Judge’s AL home run record of 62. Raleigh will attempt to set the record against the NL West champion Dodgers.
With the four-run defeat on Thursday, Colorado’s run differential is now minus-416. With one three-game series in San Francisco remaining this weekend, the Rockies have all but cemented the modern record for the worst run differential, previously held by the 1932 Boston Red Sox at minus-349. No team has had a minus-400 run differential at any point in a season.
Friday’s pitching matchup
Rockies RHP German Marquez (3-15, 6.49 ERA) at Giants RHP Trevor McDonald (0-0, 3.38)
8:15 p.m. Friday, Oracle Park
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM
Trending: With one more loss, the Rockies will officially become the second-worst team in modern National League history (since 1901). With four games remaining, Colorado’s 115 losses entering Thursday’s series finale in Seattle are tied with the 1935 Boston Braves (38-115), and five losses away from the NL’s all-time low, the 1962 New York Mets (40-120-1).
Pitching probables
Saturday: Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (5-16, 5.00) at Giants RHP Justin Verlander (3-11, 3.88), 2:05 p.m.
Sunday: Rockies RHP McCade Brown (0-4, 7.54) at Giants RHP Logan Webb (14-11, 3.30), 1:05 p.m.
— Kyle Newman, The Denver Post