Through the first road trip of the season, the Rockies’ starting pitching looks like it’s ready to win the World Series.
The rest of the club? It’s looking very much like the 100-loss teams of the past two years.
Colorado lost 3-1 to Philadelphia on Thursday at Citizens Bank Park, dropping to 1-5 as the Rockies return to LoDo for the 2025 home opener on Friday against the Athletics.
For the sixth straight game to open the season, the starting pitching was strong. The Rockies’ starting ERA stands at 1.35. Yet Colorado only has one win to show for its starters’ excellence, as the bats have been quiet and the defense suspect.
While impressive glove work highlighted Colorado’s one win so far with a series of web gems in a 2-1 win over Tampa Bay last Saturday, defense let the Rockies down again Thursday. This time, it was a key error by left fielder Mickey Moniak, who dropped a routine fly ball in the fifth inning that led to an unearned run.
That was the lone blemish on another good outing by Antonio Senzatela, who scattered 10 hits across 5 1/3 innings, with three strikeouts and no walks. Through nine-plus innings pitched in two starts, Senza’s given up 19 hits but has yet to allow an earned run. It’s the most hits against a pitcher through the first two outings of a season without an earned run since the statistic became official in 1913.
The bullpen didn’t fare as well. Kyle Schwarber homered off southpaw Luis Peralta in the seventh, and right-hander Tyler Kinley walked three straight batters in the eighth, leading to J.T. Realmuto scoring on a wild pitch to push the score to 3-0.
Meanwhile, the Rockies’ offense didn’t wake up until it was too late.
Shut out through eight innings, Colorado took advantage of an erratic outing by Jose Alvarado in the ninth. The Philadelphia right-hander walked Hunter Goodman to open the frame, gave up a hit to Michael Toglia, an RBI single to Sean Bouchard and then another single to Kyle Farmer to load the bases with one out in a 3-1 game.
But Alvarado K’d Tyler Freeman and then Brenton Doyle to cement the sweep. The Rockies finished with 10 strikeouts and now have 68 strikeouts on the season, the most in club history through six games.
The inability to get a clutch hit remains a consistent theme: Colorado is averaging 2.2 runs per game. The Rockies were 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position on Thursday.
Friday’s pitching matchup
A’s RHP Osvaldo Bido (1-0, 1.80 ERA) at Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (0-0, 3.60)
2:10 p.m. Friday, Coors Field
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: 850 AM, 94.1 FM
Trending: Colorado’s struck out 58 times in 2025 entering Thursday’s series finale in Philadelphia, the most strikeouts in franchise history through the first five games of a season. That is an average of 11.6 Ks per game. It’s still early, but it’s alarming, especially considering that’s a much higher K rate than the last two lost seasons (9.98 Ks per game in 2024, 9.52 in ’23).
Pitching probables
Saturday: A’s LHP JP Sears (0-1, 2.70) at Rockies RHP Germán Márquez (0-0, 0.00), 6:10 p.m.
Sunday: A’s RHP Joey Estes (0-1, 13.50 at Rockies TBA, 1:10 p.m.
Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.