Statistics Highlight Rockies’ Struggles Despite Win Against Yankees

DENVER — It is not unusual for an unmistakable smell to be wafting around these parts.

This situation presents a unique challenge, even for the Mile High City: The Colorado Rockies have an unbelievable record of 9-42 — actually, it was 8-42 before their victory over the Yankees on Friday night — and their greatest achievement so far has been managing to make the incredibly poor 2024 White Sox seem commendable by comparison.

The Yankees came to town on Friday to compete against a Rockies squad whose 42 losses in the first 50 games set a record for any major league team in the modern era, dating back to 1901. Despite Friday’s victory, the Rockies were still on track for a total of only 29 wins — aiming at a staggering 29-133, potentially rivaling the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (134 losses) for the most in a major league season.

In the previous year, the White Sox concluded their season at 41-121 — one of those victories was a decisive 12-2 upset over the Yankees — surpassing the 1962 Mets’ record of 120 losses, the most in modern history. After 50 games last year, they had a record of 15-35, putting them seven games ahead of the current Rockies squad.

“Obviously, it’s been a tough start to the season for them, no other way to put it,” manager Aaron Boone said before Friday’s game. “That being said, for those of us who have been around this game for a long, long time — it’s baseball. Anything can happen on any given night.”

The last time the Rockies made the playoffs, DJ LeMahieu was part of their core with Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and Charlie Blackmon in 2018.

LeMahieu signed with the Yankees that offseason, and the Rockies are an MLB-worst 368-552 since then.

“I feel like I made a pretty good choice,” LeMahieu said with a grin. “I’m happy to be here.”

In 16 series this season, the Rockies have been swept in eight of them. They have lost two of three games in the other half.

The Rockies had scored the second-fewest runs per game (3.28) and allowed the most (6.46). They had struck out more than any other team (488) and thrown the fewest strikeouts (322).

They had committed 45 errors, were tied for the worst OPS-plus in the majors (74) and been shut out eight times — the same amount the Yankees were blanked all of last season.

General manager Bill Schmidt gave then-manager Bud Black a vote of confidence May 10, only for the Rockies to get demolished 21-0 that night.

By the following day, Black was fired. The Rockies are 2-9 since then under interim manager Warren Schaeffer.

The highest-paid player on their roster — Kris Bryant — is on the injured list with a degenerative disc disease and has played just 170 games since signing a seven-year, $182 million contract ahead of the 2022 season.

He is making $27 million this season on their projected luxury tax payroll of $147.1 million, the 10th-lowest in the majors.

“Just spending so many years here, I still root for them,” LeMahieu said. “Not this weekend, but from afar, I always root for them. A lot of good people around here still since I was here. It’s been a tough go for them this first month and a half or so.”