Part of baseball’s charm is the room for things to get weird. Between submarine pitchers releasing sliders from the ground and funky batting stances memorializing otherwise forgettable players, there’s plenty of space in the sport for the idiosyncratic.
Likewise, there are lowlights from nearly every game and plenty of sloppy play to go around, especially for the league’s lesser teams.
The Colorado Rockies aren’t just the worst team in baseball. A year after the Chicago White Sox set the record for losses in a season (121), Colorado is in hot pursuit. Through 81 games, the Rockies have found 18 wins, putting them on pace for 36 victories by the season’s merciful end.
Colorado is comically bad
One doesn’t pursue a modern-era record for futility without some entertainingly bad baseball. In back-to-back games against the National League-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, the Rockies were exceptionally ugly.
In fairness to the mere mortals suiting up for Colorado, the baseball gods weren’t kind on Wednesday. Rain made the contest a messy one, but the Rockies entered the sixth inning tied at 0-0.
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A walk and a single helped put runners on second and third with two outs. Max Muncy then hit a pop-up at 66 degrees, forcing the Colorado infield to brave the heavy rain. They were unsuccessful, and two runs scored on a ball that landed softly between second baseman Thairo Estrada and first baseman Michael Toglia.
While fans scurry for cover, Max Muncy hits a pop up with a 1% chance of landing for a hit.#Rockies can’t see it in the torrential downpour and two runs score for the Dodgers. pic.twitter.com/Aaxt35vGY8
— Patrick Lyons (@PatrickDLyons) June 26, 2025
Muncy scored two batters later before a four-run seventh inning put the game to bed. Los Angeles ran away with an 8-1 win.
The Rockies ran their way to a sweep
Colorado’s attempt to avoid a sweep was spoiled by a dominant outing from Clayton Kershaw. The veteran limited the Rockies to one run, striking out five and allowing two hits over six innings.
Down 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Colorado still had some life. A Tyler Freeman walk gave Estrada a chance to tie the game against closer Tanner Scott. Instead, he hit a lazy line drive to center fielder Andy Pages.
The Rockies get doubled up to end the game with the tying run at the plate. Man. pic.twitter.com/md81GhnD5E
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) June 26, 2025
That should have given Toglia a last-ditch attempt to shock the Dodgers. No lead is safe at Coors Field.
But these are the Rockies, after all. Toglia didn’t get to bat. He was left stranded in the on-deck circle as Freeman misread Estrada’s out for a ball in the gap. Pages’ strong arm capitalized on the mistake, doubling him up at first and ending the game in utter disaster.
In due time, Wednesday’s gaffe will be lost to the box score, recorded as just another single. Thursday will go down as a predictable outcome in such a lopsided matchup. But for a brief moment in Denver, fans were reminded that the journey to triple-digit losses doesn’t come without its punchlines.
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