The Colorado Rockies returned home after a season-opening road trip Thursday for their home opener. It would be the first game ever major-league game played in Coors Field with a pitch clock. Given how much the ball has been flying out of ballparks this season, fans watching the game in person or via broadcast would've been pretty reasonable in their belief that there would be a lot of runs scored. After all, Coors Field is routinely a hitter's paradise and now the pitchers wouldn't have time to gather themselves between pitches in the thin air.
Instead, we saw one of the fastest games in Coors Field history and also one of the lowest-scoring -- with the lowest score possible, obviously -- affairs, as the Rockies prevailed 1-0 over the Nationals.
Kris Bryant's RBI single in the fifth inning plated the game's lone run.
Yep, a soft blooper brought home the only run of the game. It's not overly surprising to see soft bloopers fall in at Coors, given how spacious the grass is and how deep outfielders usually play in light of the circumstances. It's a BABIP ballpark as much as anything else to the hitter's advantage.
But that it was the only run made this game a rarity. In fact, this was just the 11th game in Coors history to finish 1-0, with the most recent coming on July 4, 2018. The other nine 1-0 games all came between 2005 and 2010, so this was only the second instance of the new decade.
Further, this was one of the fastest games in Coors Field history. This one took only two hours and 18 minutes, or 138 minutes. Yes, it's a bit longer than any movie should ever be, but that's flying for a baseball game, especially in this ballpark. In fact, this one tied for the 47th fastest game in Coors history. Maybe that doesn't sound too extreme, but it was the 2,209th regular-season game hosted by the Rockies at home.
Then again, we shouldn't be too surprised by the Nationals' lack of offense. They've now played seven games this season and have scored two runs or fewer in five of those games. They are now 1-6 and hitting .226 with a .289 slugging percentage on the young season.
Give credit to the Rockies for their victory, which moves them to 3-4, but the Nationals appear to be every bit as bad as many expected them to be when the season started.
The good news for them is the pitch clock means they get away from the ballpark that much faster now, even if it's Coors Field.
