Don't look now, but scoring is down at Coors Field
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DENVER - Coors Field has played from the day it opened as though it was filled with helium, with infield popups floating into the gaps for doubles and lazy flyballs drifting over the wall for homers.
Now it seems like some of that Mile High air is leaking out.
Whether it's due to Colorado's young lineup, good pitching - by opponents, at least - or the humidor has finally started to kick in after three years, scoring is way down this season. That's right, the place that's been dubbed Coors Canaveral because of its high-scoring games has become another run-of-the-mill ballpark with more - gasp! - pitching duels than shootouts.
"There is something different about Coors Field," said Cubs outfielder Jeromy Burnitz, who played for Colorado last year. "It doesn't seem right."
Coors Field had always been a hitters' park.
The thin air causes the ball to spin less, flattening out pitches and making them easier to hit. The ball also carries an estimated 10 percent to 12 percent farther, meaning a warning-track shot at another park often has the extra little oomph here to get over the wall. To top it off, Coors has one of the largest outfields in baseball, the gaps providing plenty of room for balls to drop in. That means plenty of doubles and triples.
And the hits started flying as soon as its doors opened.
Dante Bichette got Coors Field off to a roaring start, hitting a three-run homer in the 14th inning of the inaugural game, sending 50,000 fans home happy and baseball into an unprecedented era of scoring.
Coors was baseball's highest-scoring ballpark its first eight years, including 1996, when Bichette, Andres Galarraga, Ellis Burks and Vinny Castilla - the Blake Street Bombers - hit at least 30 homers each and the park averaged an astonishing 8.12 runs per game. Hitters loved going there because they'd boost their average. Pitchers hated it, sometimes feigning injury to avoid the hit to their ERA and psyche.
But some of the polish on Coors' high-flying act has started to wear off in recent years.
Thanks in part to a humidor - a greenhouse-like room designed to keep balls from drying out and shrinking in Denver's thin air - Coors Field has lost its lofty perch as scoring champ, finishing runner-up to Boston's Fenway Park each of the past two seasons. Still, Coors was averaging more than six runs per game and plenty of double-digit scores.
That's certainly changed this year.
The season got off to a bang, with rookie Clint Barmes capping Colorado's wild, come-from-behind 12-10 victory on opening day with a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, but since then it seems like someone has pulled the plug.
Heading into this weekend, scoring at Coors is at an all-time low of 5.32 runs per game - the first time it's dropped below six, according to the Elias Sports Bureau - putting the once-feared ballpark a meager fourth in scoring. Three of the five lowest-scoring games at Coors have been played this season, including the first 1-0 game, on July 7 against San Diego.
And it's not just the low end. Double-digit scoring, once as common at Coors as bloop doubles, now is nearly as rare as pitching gems used to be.
Since getting 12 runs in the season opener, Colorado has scored 10 runs just three more times at home and opponents only have done it nine times. This at a ballpark that has had an average of 33 double-digit games per season, including a high of 46 five years ago.
"I don't remember many games like the last two games when I played here," Burnitz said after a pair of recent low-scoring games. "Runs aren't being scored here."
Part of the problem is Colorado's roster. The Rockies once had some of baseball's most-feared lineups, with the likes of Todd Helton, Larry Walker, Castilla and Galarraga posting huge numbers. That isn't the case anymore.
As part of its rebuilding, Colorado unloaded nearly all of its proven veterans and now has a lineup that's one of baseball's youngest. The unproven hitters have had trouble taking advantage of Coors' attributes and provide little protection for Helton, who is on pace to finish with the lowest power numbers of his eight-year career.
Colorado had players hit 40 or more homers in a season 10 times in its first 13 years, including three in 1996 and 1997, but Colorado likely will be without a 30-homer hitter this season for the first time since 1994 - the year before Coors opened.
"We have a youthful lineup," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "They have gone through a stretch where they have collectively come up short driving runs in. Each time it doesn't happen there seems to be more importance or a heightened awareness the next time, an added weight to be fit into place. That's just part of the experience process they have to get through. They have to realize that no matter what happens, we're going to play another game."
It hasn't helped that Colorado's young hitters have faced the opponents' best pitchers in seemingly every series at Coors. From Florida's Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett (twice) to Houston's Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens to St. Louis' Matt Morris and Chris Carpenter, the Rockies can't seem to catch a break.
"We've seen some pretty good pitchers this year," Helton said. "And this is a young team. Many of them haven't seen pitchers like this."
Maybe the humidor just needed time to warm up. The ball-warming contraption dropped scoring slightly its first two years of existence, though there were still plenty of high-scoring games. But whether the humidor is finally having the desired effect now is hard to tell.
Whatever it is, scoring is down at Coors Field. Next thing you know, pitchers will want to pitch there.<o></o>
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Now it seems like some of that Mile High air is leaking out.
Whether it's due to Colorado's young lineup, good pitching - by opponents, at least - or the humidor has finally started to kick in after three years, scoring is way down this season. That's right, the place that's been dubbed Coors Canaveral because of its high-scoring games has become another run-of-the-mill ballpark with more - gasp! - pitching duels than shootouts.
"There is something different about Coors Field," said Cubs outfielder Jeromy Burnitz, who played for Colorado last year. "It doesn't seem right."
Coors Field had always been a hitters' park.
The thin air causes the ball to spin less, flattening out pitches and making them easier to hit. The ball also carries an estimated 10 percent to 12 percent farther, meaning a warning-track shot at another park often has the extra little oomph here to get over the wall. To top it off, Coors has one of the largest outfields in baseball, the gaps providing plenty of room for balls to drop in. That means plenty of doubles and triples.
And the hits started flying as soon as its doors opened.
Dante Bichette got Coors Field off to a roaring start, hitting a three-run homer in the 14th inning of the inaugural game, sending 50,000 fans home happy and baseball into an unprecedented era of scoring.
Coors was baseball's highest-scoring ballpark its first eight years, including 1996, when Bichette, Andres Galarraga, Ellis Burks and Vinny Castilla - the Blake Street Bombers - hit at least 30 homers each and the park averaged an astonishing 8.12 runs per game. Hitters loved going there because they'd boost their average. Pitchers hated it, sometimes feigning injury to avoid the hit to their ERA and psyche.
But some of the polish on Coors' high-flying act has started to wear off in recent years.
Thanks in part to a humidor - a greenhouse-like room designed to keep balls from drying out and shrinking in Denver's thin air - Coors Field has lost its lofty perch as scoring champ, finishing runner-up to Boston's Fenway Park each of the past two seasons. Still, Coors was averaging more than six runs per game and plenty of double-digit scores.
That's certainly changed this year.
The season got off to a bang, with rookie Clint Barmes capping Colorado's wild, come-from-behind 12-10 victory on opening day with a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, but since then it seems like someone has pulled the plug.
Heading into this weekend, scoring at Coors is at an all-time low of 5.32 runs per game - the first time it's dropped below six, according to the Elias Sports Bureau - putting the once-feared ballpark a meager fourth in scoring. Three of the five lowest-scoring games at Coors have been played this season, including the first 1-0 game, on July 7 against San Diego.
And it's not just the low end. Double-digit scoring, once as common at Coors as bloop doubles, now is nearly as rare as pitching gems used to be.
Since getting 12 runs in the season opener, Colorado has scored 10 runs just three more times at home and opponents only have done it nine times. This at a ballpark that has had an average of 33 double-digit games per season, including a high of 46 five years ago.
"I don't remember many games like the last two games when I played here," Burnitz said after a pair of recent low-scoring games. "Runs aren't being scored here."
Part of the problem is Colorado's roster. The Rockies once had some of baseball's most-feared lineups, with the likes of Todd Helton, Larry Walker, Castilla and Galarraga posting huge numbers. That isn't the case anymore.
As part of its rebuilding, Colorado unloaded nearly all of its proven veterans and now has a lineup that's one of baseball's youngest. The unproven hitters have had trouble taking advantage of Coors' attributes and provide little protection for Helton, who is on pace to finish with the lowest power numbers of his eight-year career.
Colorado had players hit 40 or more homers in a season 10 times in its first 13 years, including three in 1996 and 1997, but Colorado likely will be without a 30-homer hitter this season for the first time since 1994 - the year before Coors opened.
"We have a youthful lineup," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "They have gone through a stretch where they have collectively come up short driving runs in. Each time it doesn't happen there seems to be more importance or a heightened awareness the next time, an added weight to be fit into place. That's just part of the experience process they have to get through. They have to realize that no matter what happens, we're going to play another game."
It hasn't helped that Colorado's young hitters have faced the opponents' best pitchers in seemingly every series at Coors. From Florida's Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett (twice) to Houston's Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens to St. Louis' Matt Morris and Chris Carpenter, the Rockies can't seem to catch a break.
"We've seen some pretty good pitchers this year," Helton said. "And this is a young team. Many of them haven't seen pitchers like this."
Maybe the humidor just needed time to warm up. The ball-warming contraption dropped scoring slightly its first two years of existence, though there were still plenty of high-scoring games. But whether the humidor is finally having the desired effect now is hard to tell.
Whatever it is, scoring is down at Coors Field. Next thing you know, pitchers will want to pitch there.<o
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