Rockies measure themselves against AL-leading Rays in competitive series

DENVER -- The Rockies’ 4-0 loss to the Rays at Coors Field on Wednesday, which completed a sweep for Tampa Bay and was Colorado’s 70th loss of the season, could be described in a number of ways.

Perhaps one of the more apt ones, given the day’s conditions, would be “hazy.”

As in the sky above -- a result of incoming smoke from wildfires in surrounding states -- and the Rockies’ lineup, which managed just six hits, five of them singles and one a bloop double into shallow left-center field.

Being swept by the team with the American League’s best record isn’t cause for alarm given where the rebuilding Rockies find themselves in the wake of a major shakeup in the front office this past offseason.

So what All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman said about the two clubs afterward would probably raise some eyebrows.

“I think we’re a lot closer to [the Rays] than we are to the team we were last year,” Goodman said.

Last year, of course, was the most trying campaign in the 33-year history of the franchise. The Rockies went 43-119, one of the worst single-season win-loss records in MLB history.

This year’s edition of the club fell to 25 games under .500 with Wednesday’s loss. But it has also managed to win two more games than it did all of last season with about two months to go. And the brand of baseball it has produced -- in wins and losses alike -- is starkly different.

“Compared to last year,” said Goodman, who made his MLB debut in 2023, “we play these good teams and it’s a lot more competitive baseball. We have chances to win. We’re in almost every game.”

That was certainly not the case for most of Wednesday’s contest -- a 4-0 deficit felt like much more given the futility of the offense. But the first two games of the series were about as “2026 Rockies” as it gets.

On Monday night, they were down, 10-2, in the seventh inning. Then, they scored two runs in the seventh, one in the eighth and four in the ninth in a 13-9 loss. On Tuesday, the Rockies fell into a 5-1 hole by the third inning, but then erased the deficit and took a 7-5 lead into the ninth inning, only to lose, 9-7, in 11 innings.

Fall behind early. Battle back -- even take the lead. Lose late. It’s been a pattern all season, but a welcome development considering where the Rockies were at this time last year.

“I think that’s something that comes with more experience,” Goodman said about finishing games. “We’re a young team and we have young guys still learning where they are -- me included. But I think as we grow, [as] we keep playing together and figure out those late-inning games, what we want to do and how we want to attack it, I think we’ll be good.”

Experience: It’s something the Rays have. Something else the Rays have is sound fundamentals. They’re not particularly flashy in how they do it, but they win. Tampa Bay quietly made five straight postseason appearances from 2019-23, including a World Series appearance in ’20, before finishing in fourth place each of the past two years.

Now, the Rays are poised for another run in October. That’s a month the Rockies would someday soon like to be spending on the field rather than at home.

“They play good, clean baseball,” Goodman said of the Rays. “Offensively, they do a little bit of everything -- they have some guys who can slug, some guys who get on base and run. And I think in our lineup, we have some of that as well and we’re working to get to a better spot. I think playing a team like that is good for us.”

But don’t get the Rockies wrong on this point. Colorado wants to one day be where Tampa Bay is right now. But that doesn’t mean the Rockies are going to try to be the Rays.

They prefer to do it their own way.

“You give respect to the Rays,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “They’re a good ball club. They’re a first-place team for a reason. … But we have a good thing going here. We’re getting better. We’re playing the game the way we want to play, we’re preparing the way we want to prepare.

“And we think that’s going to be the answer.”