Young Rockies offense showing promise, even if wins aren't piling up yet

LAS VEGAS – The Rockies’ young offense is laying down solid foundations.

Though their labor hasn’t borne fruit in the shape of wins just yet (26-45 overall), there is certainly something to build on there. That was further exhibited in Saturday's 7-5 loss to the Athletics at Las Vegas Ballpark.

First baseman TJ Rumfield, 26, and right fielder Troy Johnston, 28, paced the Rox with multiple hits apiece on a night when third baseman Kyle Karros, 23, recorded his first career triple and standout rookie and No. 6 prospect Cole Carrigg, 24 – who homered twice in his first four big league starts – never really got going (0-for-4).

“[Our offense] plays hard every day,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “The young guys are playing well. They’re coming here and they’re ready to play. Kudos to [Albuquerque Isotopes manager Pedro Lopez] and the guys down there at Triple-A for getting them right.

“They are playing with freedom, and it’s showing up in the games.”

It was Rumfield’s 17th multihit outing of the campaign. He is second on the team in that category only to Johnston, who recorded his 19th in Saturday’s loss.

Rumfield’s second double of the day gave the Rockies a brief 5-4 lead in the top of the fifth inning, but Colorado pitching was unable to contain a red-hot A’s lineup which featured Alika Williams going 3-for-3 and Zack Gelof blasting a two-run homer in a 2-for-4 outing. Tyler Soderstrom gave the A’s the lead for good with a pinch-hit RBI double in the bottom of the sixth.

“[Rumfield] has been fantastic all year. [Johnston] has been great all year,” Schaeffer added. “It’s great to have young guys perform like that.”

Rumfield has been one of the Rockies’ biggest revelations considering he was a non-roster Spring Training invitee after Colorado acquired him from the Yankees in January. The Rox selected his contract on March 25 and he hasn’t looked back.

The 12th-round Draft pick by the Phillies in 2021 is slashing .278/.362/.447 in his first year in The Show. He has eight homers and 32 RBIs on the season, and has now turned in multihit performances against the Athletics in each of the first two games of the series, giving him three in his last four games.

When asked about how he has been able to find so much consistency so soon, Rumfield said: “It’s the people around me. Everybody is pulling for each other [here] and I feel like it’s easy to do well when guys are helping each other out. We have a good group here.”

Karros, a fifth-round Draft pick in the Rockies’ stacked 2023 class, has carried over the good habits from his rookie year into his sophomore term. His overall numbers at the plate have improved – slashing .234/.335/.345 this season – giving him an OPS (.680) nearly 100 points higher than his rookie year (.585).

His triple on Saturday was a vicious smack, as Karros caught a 93.1 mph four-seamer from Joey Estes right where he wanted it, before walloping it off the center-field wall at an exit velocity of 100.1 mph.

“[Karros] has been throwing up consistently better at-bats as the season goes on,” Schaeffer said. “He’s always working 3-2 counts, he’s a really good hitter, [still] just getting his feet wet in this game in the big leagues. You have to remember how young he is. He has been impressive.”

The word “impressive” can be used for the entire Rockies offense of late.

They came into this series averaging north of five runs per tilt over their last 14 games, and despite coming up short in Sin City, there should be optimism heading into Sunday’s finale against the A’s and beyond.

The Rockies are building out their offense in a variety of ways – namely the Draft and via high-upside acquisitions.

As presently constructed, Colorado’s lineup has a good blend of youth and experience that is starting to work. Every well-oiled machine has to start somewhere. The Rockies’ pitching, and defense as a whole, will have to catch up eventually. But for now, raising the ceiling as high as possible is the name of the game.

“It was sloppy baseball,” Schaeffer said of the Rockies’ third straight defeat. “That doesn’t play in this league. We had chances to get out of innings, chances to win the game, but sloppy baseball prevented that from happening. We need to get better.”