The Colorado Rockies’ view up the National League West Division is as steep as the mountain range in their name.
With the month of May just days old, the Rockies are 6-28 and already a whopping 17.5 games out of first place — by far MLB’s greatest deficit — and playing a brand of terrible baseball rarely seen in the past century.
Colorado has already had separate eight-game losing streaks and a six-game slide. After taking back-to-back games last week for the team’s first winning streak this season, Colorado returned to its losing ways with three consecutive setbacks in San Francisco.
The Chicago White Sox, coming off a 2024 campaign that’s regarded as the worst in modern baseball history, are off to another terrible start at 10-25. However, they’re still considerably more competitive than Colorado at a mere 12 games back in the American League Central.
Colorado’s poor play stems from both sides of the 60 feet and 6 inches between home plate and the mound. Rockies pitchers are 28th in the MLB in ERA (5.38) and 29th in walks plus hits per inning (1.56), and they’ve struck out the fewest number of opposing batters (225).
Colorado hitters are last in baseball in on-base plus slugging (.620), have struck out an MLB-high 344 times and have hit just 27 home runs, the fifth fewest in baseball. The lack of offense is particularly puzzling for a team that plays half its games at Coors Field, long considered the most hitter-friendly stadium in the MLB thanks to Denver’s ball-carrying thin air.
Just a few other dreadful teams in baseball history compare to Colorado this season.
Only the 1988 Baltimore Orioles had a worse 34-game start at 5-29 (.147), as the Birds crashed to 54-107 (.335) for the year.
The 1904 Washington Senators, who like the Rockies were 6-28 (.176) after 34 games, went on to be 38-113 (.252).
The 1932 Boston Red Sox were also 6-28, on their way to a 43-111 campaign (.279).
The 1904 Philadelphia Phillies were 6-27, with one tie, to start and wound up 52-100 (.342).
The Rockies, off to the worst start in baseball this year, are in contention for the worst start in 125 years, according to an NBC News analysis of Sports Reference standings data going back to 1901. At the team’s current pace, they will win their 10th game around Memorial Day weekend. Only one of the eight series between now and then is against a team with a losing record.