Nineteen years ago, the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies battled in the World Series.
Things have changed since 2007, when Boston swept Colorado to win its second championship in four seasons.
Now the teams will open a three-game series Monday night in Denver, not as title contenders but as basement dwellers. Boston sits in last place in the American League East while Colorado is in a familiar position — last in the National League West.
The Rockies have finished last in four consecutive seasons, losing 100-plus games in the past three.
The current series will begin with rookie left-hander Jake Bennett (1-3, 4.79 ERA) of the Red Sox opposing Rockies right-hander Ryan Feltner (2-2, 5.05).
Bennett won his major league debut on May 1 and has pitched well in two stints with the Red Sox. He made two starts after his first call-up from Triple-A Worcester but was optioned back to Worcester after suffering an 8-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on May 7.
He returned June 10 and has made two more starts, losing both. In his most recent outing, he gave up two earned runs over 5 1/3 innings on Wednesday to Toronto, but Boston’s offense didn’t give him any support in a 3-0 loss.
The frustration has mounted for the Red Sox, who are accustomed to fighting for a playoff spot. They are coming off a series win in Seattle against the Mariners over the weekend but have struggled to find consistency.
“I think it’s the same thing we’ve been through literally the whole season, because we always put the runners in scoring position, but we couldn’t get the hit to drive in runs,” Wilyer Abreu said recently. “So we keep working hard. We’ll try to be better in those situations and try to drive the runs in.”
Colorado, despite occupying last place, has shown improvement. The Rockies took two of three games from the Pittsburgh Pirates over the weekend to win their 30th game, a mark they didn’t reach last season until Aug. 2 — also against the Pirates.
The Rockies nearly had their 31st after trailing 8-1 Sunday, but a five-run rally in the eighth and ninth innings fell short for an 8-6 loss.
Feltner will try to get a victory in his fifth start since returning from the injured list on May 30. He is 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA in those four starts and had just one bad outing, when he gave up six runs over 4 1/3 innings to the Chicago Cubs on June 11, a 9-3 loss.
He bounced back Tuesday in his next outing — also against Chicago — but a high pitch count (104) cost him a chance at a win when he was pulled after giving up two runs and six hits over 4 1/3 innings. The Rockies posted a 5-2 victory.
Feltner will face Boston for the first time in his six-year career, which spans 77 appearances (76 starts).
Outside of Tomoyuki Sugano, Feltner has been Colorado’s most reliable starter, but he doesn’t think in those terms.
“I’m not a huge goal-setting guy, and I feel like that falls under that,” Feltner said after a recent start. “I just like to stick to my process and execute that to the best of my abilities. The best way I can say it is I’d like to just look up one day and realize where I am, instead of striving for something — it puts extra pressure on things.”
–Field Level Media
