Kuzul

The Rockies lost 2-1 to the Giants in the finale of the three-game set, dropping the series. The loss came from sloppy play and sloppy at-bats. It was another wasted Ubaldo Jimenez start, which now makes the once-ridiculous question become more real: Will Jimenez win 20 games in 2010?

For the Rockies, the problem is not talent, it’s not heart; the problem is winning on the road. The formula to winning on the road is the same as the formula for winning at home: Score runs.

AT&T Park is well known for being a pitcher’s park. It is a difficult place to hit. That all makes sense. The park, however, is not as extreme as the Rockies offense makes it seem. It doesn’t matter if a team faces the best three pitchers in baseball in three consecutive days. There is no excuse for scoring five runs total. Not in a playoff race, not in April, never.

This Rockies continue to try to make their fan base believe that they are in the playoff hunt. The only problem is that just as they get done convincing the fans to get behind the team again, they go on the road.

Monday’s win was an encouraging start. It seemed like the Rockies finally started having some breaks go their way. The reality, however, is that they scored only two runs in the victory. It may have felt nice to start a very important road trip with a win, but just two runs, both coming in the ninth inning, is not going to be something that a team can show as a breakout game.

The club currently sits 5-1/2 games out of the wild card race in the National League. The only reason that they are not done is because they get a chance to play the wild card leading Phillies head-to-head in a makeup game on Thursday at Coors Field. The saying is thrown around far too often, but if there ever was a game that is a must-win, this one is it.

The difference between being 6-1/2 back in the race and 4-1/2 back is huge. Essentially for the Rockies, it comes down to this: win and stay alive, or lose and pack it in.

The win total that will most likely be enough to capture the wild card is 90. With 30 games to go in the season, the Rockies must go 21-9 to attain that mark. Even then, that might not be enough to get in. However, it should do the trick.

Winning 21 out of 30 seems like a tall order for any team. However, the Rockies are a team that has defied the odds in two of the last three years. There seems to be a higher level of tolerance when it comes to being behind in the race late in the season.

The truth, however, comes down to one thing. It is the most talked about thing since the All-Star break for the Rockies. They must win on the road. The only problem is, they have shown no inclination to turning their road woes behind. If they can’t prove that they can win on the road, then they can’t make the playoffs.

The other factor is the games that they lose. If the Rockies can’t pick up wins with Jimenez on the mound then they have zero chance. The fact that he has gone five outings without a win is beyond ridiculous. He keeps his team in the game every single time he takes the mound. On Wednesday he should have won. He did everything that he could, including getting on base twice, to get the team in a position to win the game.

If the Rockies can’t win with Jimenez on the mound, and they can’t win on the road, they have no business being talked about in the playoff race.

This is the offense that all of the pundits said would win the Colorado Rockies their first-ever National League West crown.

This is the offense that needed to help this Colorado Rockies team win five-out-of-six on this road trip and after five games has scored a grand total of seven runs.

It doesn’t take an expert to figure out that averaging 1.2 runs per game is not going to do the job.

While the playoffs are a pipe dream for a club that looks like the offseason can’t get here quick enough, the least they could do is show up to play when their ace, Ubaldo Jimenez is on the mound.

On Saturday, Jimenez looked like he had no-hit stuff again. In the fourth inning, he gave up a double to Justin Upton to break up the no-hit bid. Two batters later, Upton scored on a wild pitch to end the shutout threat.

Two innings later, Upton smacked a two-run homer to left field on a hanging breaking ball to make the start look far less dominant than it actually was.

How dare Jimenez ask this Rockies offense to pick him up after a bad pitch? Didn’t Jimenez know that the offensive gas tank was running on empty after putting up a whopping three runs on Friday night?

To ask this offense to score three runs two nights in a row is like asking Sarah Palin to give Barack Obama a big bear hug. It just isn’t going to happen.

Sorry folks, this team is done.

The only people that still care about how the Rockies perform are not the ones putting on a uniform everyday. Even Jim Tracy, Mr. Optimist, had a dead-pan look on his face when the Diamondbacks put up their third run.

The question remaining is not whether the Rockies will make the playoffs; they won’t. It is not whether Ubaldo Jimenez will win the Cy Young; he won’t.

The only question remaining is when, and if, the Rockies will show hitting coach Don Baylor the door.

Someone has to take the blame when a team with as much talent as the Rockies possess falls flat on their faces.

If one or two guys found themselves in season-long slumps, it wouldn’t be Baylor’s fault.

When more than half of the club’s regular players are having the worst season of their careers, it is time to make a change.

Make no mistake, the problem is not that the Rockies are not hitting. The problem is that the approach they take at the plate is non-existent.

Watch closely. When Ian Stewart, Chris Iannetta and Clint Barmes come to the plate, is it just coincidence, or are they constantly stuck in 0-2 and 1-2 counts?

There is a reason for that. In Stewart and Iannetta’s case, they are not aggressive enough. Pitchers know that they will not fire on the first pitch, so they groove it across the plate.

For Barmes, it is quite the opposite problem. He comes out swinging. Pitchers know that, so they throw a slider outside and in the dirt. More often than not, Barmes waves at it and either misses or hits a weak popup to the second baseman.

Those are just three examples. The team as a whole is far too homer-happy. With runners on base, a single usually does the trick.

A home run is nice, but when a guy like Barmes, who has eight home runs on the season is swinging for the big fly, it just doesn’t make sense.

If the approach at the plate is off, blame shifts from the players to the coaches. In this case, Don Baylor.

For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com

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The FSN play-by-play announcer seemingly came up with a new stat that showed how horrible Mets starter Mike Pelfrey has been since June.

On Tuesday night in New York, Ubaldo Jimenez had his best stuff. The only problem is that if he wanted to pick up his franchise-record 18th win, he was going to need to be perfect.

Pelfrey dominated the Rockies’ road offense, which seems to miss every flight out of Denver, leading the Mets to a 1-0 win in a game the Rockies needed desperately.

Jimenez was nothing short of phenomenal. He gave up just four hits in seven innings. He gave up the one run, which came because of a leadoff walk, one of four in the game, that came around to score on a Jose Reyes sacrifice fly.

The Rockies are out of excuses. They can come up with whatever reason they want to for why they can’t hit on the road.

The latest excuse is that Coors Field has such a big outfield that when they leave their comfortable confines, the outfielders seem like they are right on top of the hitter.

With a shutout at Citi Field, one of the most spacious outfields in baseball, that excuse is no longer valid.

The fact is, with two months to go in their season and chasing two teams in the race for the National League West, the Rockies cannot afford to lose games when their ace Jimenez is on the mound. His starts must be an automatic W.

All it would have taken to win on Tuesday night was two measly runs against a starting pitcher who is struggling greatly.

They could not get it done and find themselves scoreboard watching hoping that they don’t lose ground instead of hoping they gain a full game.

The Rockies are now 2-3 on their current seven-game road trip. In order to salvage even the hope that it was a decent trip, the club must now win the final two games against the Mets.

That might not seem like that tall of an order, except for the fact that Johan Santana will take the mound for New York on Thursday afternoon.

So what is the Rockies’ issue on the road? One thing that is clear is that it is in their heads. They cannot quit tripping over their own feet in other teams’ parks.

There have been very few road losses in 2010 in which the Rockies were defeated by the other team. The majority of the time, they lose to themselves.

They are their own worst enemy, and they cannot relax and simply take the same approach at the plate that they do when they are at home.

Good teams win on the road. Good teams win games with their ace on the mound and an inferior team in the other dugout. The Rockies have done neither in 2010.

With the hope that the Padres and Giants may fall apart at some point and the Rockies may figure it out, there remains some hope.

Unfortunately, as early August turns to mid-August, this Colorado club has not hit on all cylinders.

What that means is that instead of them figuring it out at some point, they are going to be remembered for being yet another team that never realized their potential.

If they haven’t figured it out yet, they probably never will.

For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com

This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com