Rockies lose 100 games in four consecutive seasons as Colorado joins ill-famed MLB fraternity

DENVER — The Rockies joined an exclusively awful baseball fraternity.

Colorado fell, 7-2, to the Diamondbacks at Coors Field on Tuesday, becoming just the fifth MLB franchise to lose at least 100 games in four straight seasons. The Rockies’ poor-playing company includes the Mets (1962-65), Washington Senators (1961-64), Phillies (five consecutive from 1938-42) and Boston Doves/Braves (1909-12).

After the club-worst and historically inept 119-loss season of a year ago, the Rockies showed promise throughout the first half of 2026 and there were times it appeared that they would finish somewhere in the 90-loss range.

But the wheels fell off the purple cart over the last two months as the 2026 Rockies played a lot like the ’25 club. Following a three-game sweep against the Royals at Coors Field from July 31-Aug. 2, punctuated by hometown southpaw Kyle Freeland’s first career complete game in the series finale, Colorado fell off a cliff.

The Rockies are 12-33 since that Freeland gem, including a season-long eight-game losing streak, a franchise record 10-game home losing streak, and just three series wins. The offense, which underwent a drastic turnaround from ’25 to become one of the better lineups in the National League this season, consistently flailed in the clutch. And the pitching was atrocious, especially the rotation.

Colorado’s top starter, Tomoyuki Sugano, faded with a 7.40 ERA over nine August/Sept. starts. Kyle Freeland, amid one of the worst seasons of his career, went to the injured list with a pinched nerve in his neck. Freeland was on the mound in Tuesday’s 100th loss, when he allowed five runs over three innings in what may be his final Rockies start, given his impending free agency. Freeland is the final holdover on the current roster from the 2017 and ’18 playoff teams, and in many ways represents the last bastion of bygone winning baseball in Denver.

The young pitchers who got a chance in the rotation in place of Freeland and DFA’d struggling veteran Michael Lorenzen, Tanner Gordon and Gabriel Hughes, were both inconsistent and had overall ERAs north of 6.00. Rookie right-hander Mason Adams, who debuted Aug. 25, hasn’t been much better with a 5.09 ERA in five starts.

Overall, the Rockies’ 5.57 ERA entering Tuesday is the worst in baseball, as is their starting ERA of 6.20. The bullpen isn’t ranked much better, with a 4.85 ERA that’s the fourth-worst. Colorado is jockeying with the Athletics, who have a 5.45 overall ERA, for the worst pitching staff in baseball.

Should the Rockies arms keep their current pace, they’ll become the third team in over a century to post the highest ERA in five straight seasons, joining the St. Louis Browns (1935-1939) and the Phillies’ record of nine consecutive times from 1922-1930. Combining the ineptitude on the mound with the loss column, the Rockies will likely finish as the first MLB team in the modern era to both post the highest ERA in five straight seasons while also losing 100-plus games in four straight amid the same span.

All of those pitching woes added up to a late-season slide that underscored, highlighted and circled in Sharpie how difficult Colorado’s climb back to contention is going to be, especially considering how wide the gulf is between the Rockies and the NL West powers. The Dodgers and Padres are a combined 42-10 against the Rockies over the last two seasons as Colorado’s been no where close to competitive within the division.

There have been silver innings of progress this year, which wasn’t necessarily difficult to do considering how bad the ’25 team was. Colorado was in a lot more games, as its -182 run differential is miles ahead of the MLB modern-record -424 run differential of last year’s team.

And the Rockies got a bona fide Rookie of the Year campaign from first baseman TJ Rumfield, another dominant power season by slugging All-Star Hunter Goodman who leads NL catchers with 39 homers, and much-needed strong contributions from outfielder Jake McCarthy, third baseman Kyle Karros and rookie utilityman Cole Carrigg.

Plus, southpaw Brennan Bernardino was a bright spot in the bullpen, with a 2.89 ERA in 72 games. Acquired via an offseason trade with the Red Sox, Bernardino posted 19 straight appearances at Coors Field without an earned run, tied for the longest single-season streak by a reliever at home in franchise history. His 2.05 ERA in LoDo is a Rockies bullpen record for relievers who have appeared in at least 30 games.

But on the flip side of viewing the Rockies through those purple-tinted lenses, this is still very clearly a team that does not know how to win.

The Rockies’ 47 losses in games decided by two or fewer runs are the most in the NL. Colorado is also 6-15 in rubber matches this year, and 2-31-3 in series where they lost the opener. So while the competitive gap in terms of run differential has shown great improvement, the hardest hurdle to clear — finding a way to win late in the ballgame — continues to elude manager Warren Schaffer’s squad.

Add in the fact that the Colorado farm system isn’t full of a bunch of future All-Stars, and the future seems even bleaker.

When top-ranked prospects Charlie Condon (the first baseman/outfielder’s ETA is 2027) and Ethan Holliday (the shortstop’s ETA is 2029) get to the majors, they’ll be impact players. But the big issue centers around the club’s greatest need: There are few potential future starting pitchers within the Rockies’ top-30 prospect list, with the closest to debuting being right-hander Jackson Cox and southpaw Konner Eaton, both of whom pitched in Double-A this summer. And Colorado’s overall system is still ranked in the bottom third of baseball by Baseball America at No. 23.

So settle in, Rockies fans. The climb ahead remains long, and steep. The jump made this year, from historically bad to just bad, is an easier jump to make than going from bad to decent. And unless a looming lockout condenses the schedule in 2027, there is a very real possibility that the Rockies join those dreadful WWII-era Phillies teams next year as the only clubs in MLB history with five straight 100-loss seasons.