The Colorado Rockies made the wrong kind of history on Sunday afternoon, becoming the second team in Major League Baseball’s existence to trail in each of their first 28 games. The Rockies achieved that dubious honor early thanks to two first-inning runs from the Houston Astros, including the first on a Yordan Alvarez sacrifice fly (GameTracker).
The Rockies entered Sunday with a 7-20 mark on the season, good for last place in the National League West. Their 25.9% winning percentage represented the third-worst in the majors, ahead of only the Chicago White Sox, who completed a sweep over the Tampa Bay Rays to move out of 30th. The Miami Marlins now own that designation.
The 1910 St. Louis Browns were the other team to trail in each of their first 28 contests. They opened with a 5-21 record through those 28 games, notching several ties along the way. Those Browns finished the season with a 47-107-4 record. (The Browns, in case you didn’t know, relocated to Baltimore to become the Orioles in 1954.)
The Rockies will have a chance to displace the Browns and take sole possession of their historical indignity come Tuesday. Coincidentally, they’ll be on the road playing the aforementioned Marlins in a battle of the movable object and the dominatable force.
It should be noted that the Rockies earned their share of history outside of the United States. The Rockies and Astros’ two-game set this weekend was hosted in Mexico City, Mexico, at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú. As our Dayn Perry noted last week, this marked the seventh time MLB had played a regular-season series in Mexico; the Rockies had previously been involved in 1999, when they faced the San Diego Padres. The Astros, for their part, partook in 2019 when they played against the Los Angeles Angels.
