DENVER — The Colorado Rockies won Thursday to avoid reaching what would have been a new low: setting the record outright for the worst 68-game start in Major League Baseball’s modern era.
Orlando Arcia’s two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Rockies an 8-7 win over the San Francisco Giants. It moved Colorado’s record to 13-55 — tied for the worst with the 1932 Boston Red Sox, who also won their 68th game that season.
The Rockies are aware of the record, but it is not something they dwell on.
“We look at it,” third baseman Ryan McMahon said. “I know it to a ‘T.’ I think we all do, man.”
The Rockies begin a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves — who won two of their past three games against the Milwaukee Brewers but just five of their past 20 overall — on Friday night at Truist Park.
Arcia has been part of successful organizations in Milwaukee and Atlanta in his 10-year MLB career, and the 30-year-old infielder has played in the postseason the past seven years.
“We’re not focusing on what happened in the past,” said Arcia, acquired by the Rockies on May 28 after being released by Atlanta. “We’re taking it day by day. We’re just trying to look to the future. I told my people I came here to do a job, and to come out and play and help this team win however I can.”
Arcia, who lost his job as Atlanta’s starting shortstop earlier this season, has moved to first base with the Rockies.
Colorado entered Thursday 26 games out of first place in a National League West Division topped by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the reigning World Series champions. The Rockies also had 11 fewer wins than the American League’s Chicago White Sox, the second-worst team in the majors this year.
However, after a 9-50 start, the Rockies have made some recent headway under interim manager Warren Schaeffer. They are 4-5 in their past nine games, with Thursday win snapping a five-game losing streak.
“I think we are just playing better baseball,” said McMahon, who drew a walk in the ninth inning and scored the winning run. “As long as you focus on that when you are out in the field, the record takes care of itself. We can’t get it all back in one day. We have to take it pitch by pitch, day by day.”
McMahon admitted the poor start was “bad, man,” but said “I think that almost made it a little bit easier, because you don’t want to think about it. You want to just focus on what you are doing every day when you get here and keep trying to win more games.
“To do what we did today, not give up, keep fighting, I think overall, that’s just big. You can look back at that. You can remember we’ve come back from situations like this before and that it kind of helps you keep going.”