Rockies' offensive strategy unable to deliver results on road

DETROIT -- The Rockies brought a theoretically sound offensive strategy into Tuesday night against the Tigers. At the most basic level, they followed it. But checking off the boxes did not mean hitters found the answer for Tigers rookie starting pitcher Keider Montero.

The best-laid Rockies plans resulted in an 11-0 loss at Comerica Park in which they had just three singles and took just 27 turns at the plate against Montero, who became the first Tigers starter to face the minimum amount of batters since Justin Verlander in a no-hitter on May 7, 2011, at Toronto. It also was the first time in Colorado history that the club sent the minimum 27 batters to the plate in a nine-inning game.

OK, fans, this is an odd one. Coming is a story about a team’s offensive strategy on a night when it suffered its 15th shutout -- which leads the NL and is just one fewer than the club record, set in 2021.

But from a big-picture perspective, Tuesday illustrated the plight of a club that has turned over the lineup to youth, yet still must solve a problem that is as old as the Rockies’ offense itself: finding offense away from Denver’s unique and offense-inducing climate.

Challenge and response
The Rockies entered Tuesday with a 3-3 record on a road trip against two National League contenders -- the Braves and the Brewers. They broke even with an all-or-nothing offense. All 14 of their runs came via the home run, yet they struck out 81 times. The 75 strikeouts in the first five contests were the second-most since 1900 for one team over a five-game span.

Meanwhile, Montero -- like the entire pitching staff of a Tigers club that is a surprise American League Wild Card contender -- works low and below the strike zone.

“They don’t pitch up, like most teams are doing,” said Rockies hitting coach Hensley Meulens, after going over the scouting report with the hitters. “They pitch up only 24 percent [of the time], so 76 percent of the time, it’s middle and down. And they’re trying to get us to chase down.

“That’s our worst area.”

The Rockies seemed ripe for Montero. But they’ve also been among the MLB home run leaders over the last three-plus months. Michael Toglia has 23 homers, Brenton Doyle and Ezequiel Tovar have 22 apiece and Ryan McMahon has 18.

To succeed against the Tigers means hitting the pitch that is low but in the zone. Meulens described an old-fashioned maneuver -- drive the back knee toward the plate, keep the hands in position and get on the plane with the pitch.

“Everybody works on that every day, but for the most part teams are pitching up,” Meulens said.

For what it’s worth, the Rockies struck out just five times on Tuesday.

So, why didn’t it work?
Montero made sure the balls the Rockies put in play were rarely hit solidly.

"He just has a really solid four-pitch mix -- lively fastball, two different breaking balls and a good change,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “He threw a ton of strikes. We just couldn't solve the pitches in the strike zone. It looked like we didn't chase a whole lot.”

Back to the 32-season-old drawing board
The Rockies have just three winning road seasons in their history -- 2009, 2017 and 2018. So the difference between home and road, not just the flight of the batted ball but the break and movement on the pitch itself, is real.

The best method for success is good starting pitching -- which they didn’t get from Bradley Blalock on Tuesday (4 IP, 5 R/4 ER, 5 H, 5 BB) but have gotten most of the trip -- and any kind of runs they can get. That means not disparaging the long ball.

“Home runs are the most efficient way to score in this game,” Toglia said. “That doesn’t mean you need to be selling out for homers every time. But if you have guys that can hit homers, that should be part of the game plan.”

McMahon, who said going into the trip the sole goal was to finish the nine games with a winning record, had no reason to let strikeout history dampen his mood.

“It really doesn’t matter how it looks,” McMahon said. “It’s about getting it done. This game is hard. People are always going to be nitpicking.”

The right nits to pick
Meulens’ ideal world is paved with more homers and fewer whiffs. The best way to get there? Don’t talk about either. Just concentrate on how.

“I strictly believe the home run is a byproduct of getting your pitch to hit, hitting it hard and getting it on an angle going up -- making sure you’re on the same plane so that when you square it, it’s a line drive that keeps carrying,” Meulens said.

That means fewer whiffs, but also fewer nights like Tuesday.