The Rockies are 5-27 on the road while simultaneously owning one of the best home records (25-16) in baseball. As they open a two-game series in Seattle on Tuesday night, the bad news is that Seattle is not in Colorado. The good news is that this road trip is only five games.

Bud Black has seen a lot of baseball in his day, but the Rockies manager has never seen anything like this -- none of us have. The disparity between Colorado's winning percentage at Coors Field and its winning percentage on the road is .454, which would be the largest in the Modern Era (since 1900).

Currently, that record for largest gap between home and road winning percentages belongs to the 2020 Astros, whose differential was .433. Of course, that was in a 60-game season, so there’s definitely a caveat there, as there is with the team in second place on the list: the 2020 Twins (.360). Two A’s teams round out the top four -- the 1945 club had a differential of .356 and the 1902 club’s differential was .339.

Black, who guided the Rockies to back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time in franchise history in 2017 and '18, has seen his club sink precipitously since, losing 91 games in '19 before going 26-34 in the pandemic-shortened '20 campaign, which works out to a 70-92 mark in a 162-game season. But this year’s club on the road, well … this is another level of futility entirely.

How do they right the ship on the road?

“I’m open to suggestions,” Black quipped during Colorado’s just-completed homestand, on which the Rockies went 5-2. “Via text, via email, via old-school letter.”

After they traded Nolan Arenado to the Cardinals, it’s not as if the Rockies were expected to be postseason contenders in 2021. But to start the season 5-27 away from Coors Field while playing very well at home is certainly something that was unexpected.

And that may not even be the strangest part -- Colorado’s starting rotation has a 3.68 ERA while pitching in the most hitter-friendly ballpark in the Majors, while its ERA when leaving the thin air of Denver is nearly three runs higher (6.42).

What in the world is going on here?

“I don’t know why, man,” said ace right-hander Germán Márquez. “The thing that I know is that every time we go out, we’re gonna give our best to the team.”

Márquez’s performance is a microcosm of his team’s fortunes, as he has a 3.56 ERA at Coors Field and a 5.74 mark on the road.

Black said he doesn’t have an explanation, either -- at least as far as why the starters have struggled so much on the road. As for the pitching at Coors, he’s not surprised.

“This ballpark is offensively slanted,” Black said. “But as it relates to our pitchers, our pitchers don’t care about that. Our pitchers are mentally tough -- our starting pitchers, especially, in regards to that, because they’re the ones throwing roughly 100 pitches per start. And they just make pitches.”

Strong starting pitching at Coors Field is not without precedent during the Black administration. In 2018, Kyle Freeland posted an incredible 2.40 ERA in 15 home starts. Black has instilled a “make good pitches and they’ll work anywhere; make bad pitches and they’ll get hit anywhere” mentality in his pitchers, and there have been times when it’s shown.

On the other side of the ledger, it’s not surprising to see Colorado hitters struggle when they go down from the mile-high altitude of Denver to sea level, where the increased movement of breaking pitches is stark. But still, the 2021 home-road splits for the lineup are wild, even by Rockies standards.

The Rockies are slugging .473 at home -- no shocker there. But their slugging percentage on the road is 178 points lower (.295). Only one team in the last 115 years has had a larger differential between home and road slugging -- the 1996 Rockies (.223).

“It’s been kind of an anomaly this year, I think,” said shortstop Trevor Story. “I wish I could tell you exactly what it was. But I’ve always tried not to put much thought [into] being on the road or being at home. I’ve always just really thought of it as ‘baseball is baseball.’”

It’s certainly the same game being played whether the Rockies are home or away, but even the five-tool star Story isn’t immune to the “other” Coors Effect -- his career .748 OPS on the road is 234 points lower than at home.

At least part of the answer as to why the problem has been so much worse for Colorado hitters in 2021 may rest in the fact that so many of them are young players trying to establish themselves at the big league level. It’s hard enough to do that at sea level, let alone having to deal with going back and forth between sea level and altitude.

“In years' past, we’ve obviously been a more veteran team, so guys had been through it,” Story said. “Maybe that has something to do with it? I don’t know. But collectively, it just hasn’t been what it was in the past.”

It’s been a trying season at the plate for Story, individually, as well. He’s slashing .259/.335/.424 (99 OPS+) with six homers, production well below his norm. Luck seems to be playing a significant role -- according to Statcast, Story’s expected home run total is 13. That seven-homer difference is the highest in MLB. Teammate Garrett Hampson is second on the list, while Charlie Blackmon is tied for fourth.

Story hasn’t been stressing over it. And Story might be starting to come around. During the last homestand, he hit .423 with three doubles and a homer. Of course, he hit just .077 during the eight-game road trip prior to that.

“I really rely on my experience when it comes to this,” Story said. “I know it’s a long season, and things will be more normal come the end of the season.”

“Normal” is different for the Rockies. Always has been. They just hope what’s happening now with their home-road splits isn’t the “new normal.”