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There have been a lot of memorable Opening Day\u2019s for the Colorado Rockies<\/a>, even pre-dating the Opening of Coors Field in 1995. Eric Young\u2019s leadoff homer in Colorado\u2019s first ever home game at old Mile High Stadium in 1993. Dante Bichette\u2019s walk off homer in the 14th inning of 1995 game that christened brand new Coors Field. Rookie shortstop Clint Barmes walk off homer that lifted Colorado past the San Diego Padres<\/a> 12-10 in 2005. Kyle Freeland\u2019s Rockies debut in 2017 that became an amazing 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 2026 version? It\u2019s a game everyone associated with the club would love to forget.<\/p>\n Phillies Big Boppers Do Their Thing at Coors Field<\/p>\n The visiting Philadelphia Phillies ruined this year\u2019s party in lower downtown Denver by bludgeoning the home team 10-1<\/a>. They lit up newly acquired starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen \u2013 fresh off an outstanding performance in the World Baseball Classic<\/a> \u2013 for 7 runs in the first inning. The inning included a towering 454 foot home run by Phillies Brandon Marsh, while teammates Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber (a 460 foot blast) each added monster home runs in the romp.<\/p>\n There are some the subscribe to the idea that Opening Day can set a tone for the rest of the season. While that may be the case sometimes, it\u2019s not always an accurate measurement of how a team is going to do the rest of the season. For example, the only Rockies World Series team in history, the 2007 version, stumbled in the opener, falling 8-6 to Arizona after blowing a late lead. The 2009 Rockies, another playoff team, beat the Phillies 10-3 on Day One.<\/p>\n The Rockies playoff teams in 2017 (Freeland\u2019s gem) and 2018 (an 8-3 loss to Atlanta) split their season openers.<\/p>\n Colorado Trying to Avoid a Fourth Straight 100-loss Season<\/p>\n The last three Rockies teams have each lost more than 100 games, including last season\u2019s historic 119-loss season. But oddly enough, Colorado has won three of their last four home openers, including a 1-0 gem over Washington in 2023 from Freeland and two relievers. Last season, Colorado used six different pitchers and scored six runs in the final two innings to walk off Tampa 10-7.<\/p>\n One of the very few highlights from that very difficult season.<\/p>\n Most with an educated opinion believe Colorado will lose more than 100 games again this year for the fourth consecutive time. Others believe there will be marked improvement from a retooled roster and a more experienced pitching staff. In reality, both things can be true. Something like a 15-game improvement \u2013 \u00a0which would still leave the Rockies with 104 losses \u2013 would likely be an acceptable first season for the revamped Rockies front office<\/a>.<\/p>\n Colorado is already dealing with an injury to a starting pitcher. Veteran Jose Quintana, brought in to help stabilize a rotation in flux, suffered a strained hamstring, and has landed on the injured list. Highly touted young righthander Chase Dollander, who picked up a win in relief in Toronto, is now slated to return the starting rotation<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n After a surprising road series win in Toronto against the defending American League champion Blue Jays<\/a> earlier in the week, Colorado appears to be much improved team already\u2026although games like the home opener against the Phillies don\u2019t help much.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMark Knudson<\/a> Mark is a former MLB pitcher for the Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies. He’s the only person ever to play high school, college and professional baseball in Colorado. Mark earned a BA in Technical Journalism from Colorado State University and has worked in radio, television and print sports media since 1994. He’s the co-author of “Pitching to the Corners” with former teammate Don August and the author of “Just Imagine,” a historical fiction novel about The Beatles.
\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Rockies\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty There have been a lot of memorable Opening Day\u2019s for the Colorado Rockies, even pre-dating the Opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2405],"tags":[5,167,52,4316,4,168],"class_list":{"0":"post-662218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-rockies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-rockies","11":"tag-coloradorockies","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-rockies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116344673004400726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMark is currently a feature writer and columnist for Mile High Sports in Denver and recently joined the team at Heavy.com. Mark is also a high school baseball coach in the Denver area. More about Mark Knudson<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n