Colorado Rockies' Pitching Worked Perfectly for a Day

Last week, I wrote a Bleacher Report article that was a strange but potentially viable suggestion for the Colorado Rockies and their pitching staff. And for one day my scheme looked like a winner for the Rockies.

In the article, I suggested that the Rockies use their starter for three innings, a middle reliever for three and another reliever for three. Then they rotate so the closer would be the middle reliever the next game, the middle reliever would start the next and the starter would close.

If all went well, there would be a staff of pitchers with 150 some odd innings, a bunch of starts, chances for wins and saves.

Plus it would give the Rockies a chance to mix and match pitchers instead of having one poor pitcher do the bulk of the work at Coors.

Yesterday, the Rockies were not at Coors but at Turner Field in Atlanta. The Braves are one of the Wild Card teams in the National League and many teams were scoreboard watching to see what the Rockies would do.

Drew Pomeranz pitched the first three innings and kept the Braves scoreless. Carlos Torres came out and pitched the next three innings, also all shutout frames.

Rex Brothers, who has the best name of any middle reliever in baseball, pitched a pair of scoreless innings. Then Matt Belisle threw the final inning.

The result was a 6-0 victory for the Rockies, lots of disappointed Braves fans and many thrilled Cardinals, Dodgers and Pirates fans.

Now it may not have been exactly what I drew up, as Brothers did not go three himself. But it was close enough to see that mixing matching with a thin pitching staff could be enough to even beat a quality team like Atlanta in their own ballpark.

Of course it is still a crazy idea and nobody will probably ever do my suggested pitching rotation. But how could it be worse than sending mediocre pitchers out to wither?

We saw how it can be better.