The Rockies Horror Road Show: Could Colorado be first team to hit under .200 on the road?

New York Times

09-05-2025

Editor's note: This is a bonus Weird and Wild column. To read more Weird and Wild from the past week, go here.
I don't know about you, but I'm starting to worry that those Colorado Rockies might not make the playoffs.
I hate to jump to conclusions this early — but holy Michael Toglia! It doesn't seem as if it's going that great at scenic Coors Field.
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It's only seven months since the 2024 Chicago White Sox displaced the 1962 New York Mets and took their rightful place as The Worst Team of Modern Times (41-121). So it would have been helpful to have a few decades to let that sink in.
Instead, the Rockies are on a Sox-ian pace that you might want to start tracking. Here is how their first 37 games of this season compare with the other titans in the Not Exactly Winningest Teams Ever derby.
2025 Rockies — 6-31 … minus-109 run differential … 18.5 games out of first place … 13.5 games out of next-to-last place.
2024 White Sox — 8-27 … minus-88 run differential … 15 games out of first … 10 out of next-to-last.
1962 Mets — 12-23 … minus-50 run differential … 13 games out of first … actually in next-to-last (a half-game ahead of the Cubs).
1899 Cleveland Spiders — 8-27 … minus-136 run differential … 18 1/2 games out of first … 1 1/2 games out of next-to-last.
True, that isn't the most upbeat chart ever to appear in this column. But hey, you know what teams always say at times like this: There's a lot of baseball still to be played. So while it's too late for those Spiders, Mets and White Sox to undo their messy starts, the Rockies are still breathing.
Except that record isn't even the Weirdest or Wildest part of their season. Here comes that part:
A friend of mine in baseball texted me these eight eye-popping words this week:
Have you checked the Rockies road hitting stats??
Oh, I've checked, all right. But my policy on these things is, when I get a question with multiple question marks, it means I need to make the world aware of stuff like this. So if you're ready for those Rockies road stats, here they come.
.189/.248/.289 … OPS+ of 57
For some reason, that doesn't seem real Blake Street Bomber-ish. But before I let you in on the history that could be at stake, here's some helpful perspective, comparing the Rockies' road numbers with the offensive seasons of a few 'hitters' from the past whose names might sound familiar.
(*road stats only)
So you might infer from that list that the Rocky Road version of this team has been hitting kinda like a pitcher. Is that what I was hinting at there? Huh. It's possible, I guess. But also …
No team has ever hit under .200 on the road! Well, by ever, we're only referring to post-1900 baseball. But in case you're curious, the record for lowest road batting average in the modern era is a dazzling .203, by Topsy Hartsel's 1908 Philadelphia A's. It was the dead-ball era, but still …
That A's team somehow scored only 192 runs on the road all season — in 79 games. And that record seems unbreakable … except for the fact that the Rockies are on pace to score only 179! So could that actually happen, here in the 21st century?
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The Cubs scored 56 runs on their first road trip of the season (seven games), not even counting that journey to Tokyo. The Rockies have scored 42 away from Coors Field all season.
So can they really obliterate those records by a team that last played baseball 117 years ago? For the record, I'll take the 'over.' But yikes!
GO DEEPER
Did the Rockies just have the worst month in baseball history?
GO DEEPER
From mediocrity to futility: Rockies set MLB record for most losses in April
(Top photo of Michael Toglia: Hunter Martin / Getty Images)