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Rockies Achieve Early Milestone That Eluded Them in 2025
Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Kyle Freeland (21) pitches to the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning at Rogers Centre John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

For once in who knows how long, it is a good day to be a Colorado Rockies fan. The Rockies now sit at .500, 12 games into the season, after a more than impressive sweep of the Houston Astros.

It is easy to say that it is very early in the year, so why is that impressive? The Rockies were 2-10 at this time in 2025, and would then go on to win three games the rest of the month.

This is a different Colorado team, as there was no point last season that anyone thought that this team would avoid a historically poor season, let alone finish the year .500. The 2026 Rockies definitely have a chance to do that.

The most recent positive note concerns the Houston Astros, whose worst batter was hitting .240 heading into this at Coors Field, and the team had the most runs scored in baseball this far in the season.

The Rockies were not just able to sweep the Astros, but hold them to a measly run scored in each of the last two games, while winning an offensive shootout in the 9-7 opener.

Astros Series' Highlights

Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

Not sure the last time there has been a multitude of encouraging statements that could be made about Colorado's pitching staff, but here we are.

There isn't enough time or space on a page to explain how tough Houston's offense has been this year. So, for the Rockies to hold them to two runs combined in the final two games of the series is insanely impressive.

Kyle Freeland is starting to look elite as a starting pitcher. He made the start in their second win and went over six innings. It hasn’t been often that a Rockies starter does that, but it absolutely has been very rare. Freeland struck out five, including Jose Altuve, who is hitting over .300 on the year.

At the plate, there is one player everyone should get behind right now- rookie TJ Rumfield. Rumfield went 4-for-9 in this series and is the clear frontrunner for NL Rookie of the Year.

Now, the Rockies are going on a pretty tough road stretch to face the San Diego Padres and the Astros, again. Before returning home to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers. If the start of the year isn't convincing enough, then the next few weeks will, and maybe the doubters will be able to start believing.


This article first appeared on Colorado Rockies on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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