Milestone No. 30: Ubaldo Jimenez has a magical season
Mar 3, 2025, 4:00 AM | Updated: Mar 4, 2025, 7:12 am
The Fan is turning 30! For three decades, the station has been covering Denver sports, serving as a media outlet of record for the biggest events over the past 30 years.
There have been a lot of them. From championships to MVPs, from historic seasons to improbable victories, The Fan has been there for all of them.
What were the best of the best? During a six week span, Denver Sports will chronicle the moments that stood out the most. It’s a countdown from No. 30 to No. 1, in a series called “Mile High Milestones.”
Enjoy the trip down memory lane!
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The Colorado Rockies aren’t known for having great pitching. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
For most of the franchise’s existence, a stretch that now surpasses three decades, they’ve been known as an offensive-minded team. The thin Colorado air, plus the dimensions at Coors Field, turned the Rockies into a club that plays games with scores resembling slow-pitch softball as opposed to pitching duels.
The Rockies record book makes this abundantly clear. The franchise’s all-time leader in career wins (Jorge de la Rosa) has just 86 victories in purple pinstripes. They’ve never had a team ERA lower than 4.14, but have had a season in which their pitchers combined for an earned run average over 6.00. And the club has only had 10 hurlers selected to the All-Star Game.
When they win, it’s almost always due to their offense. The Blake Street Bombers has been an appropriate moniker for 30-plus years for a reason.
But there is one exception to that rule. There was an aberration that went against this norm.
In 2010, Ubaldo Jimenez had a season for the ages. He was the best pitcher in baseball, putting on a clinic nearly every time he took the mound.
Jimenez came out of the gates hot. He started the year with six-straight wins, including a no-hitter – the only one in franchise history – on April 17 in Atlanta. By the All-Star break, the right-hander was 15-1, with his only loss coming in a 2-0 setback against the Dodgers.
In Jimenez’s 18 starts in the first half of the season, he gave up two runs or less on 14 occasions. He didn’t surrender a single run in six of his starts. And he recorded 113 strikeouts.
He was dealing. Every single game.
As a result, he boasted a 2.20 ERA on July 8. That mark, combined with his stellar win-loss record, earned him the starting nod for the National League in the All-Star Game, becoming the first and only Rockies pitcher to earn that honor.
He wasn’t able to maintain that pace after the break, finishing with a 19-8 record. But as his 2.88 ERA for the season suggests, that wasn’t all on Jimenez. In his seven losses down the stretch, the hurler surrendered just 22 runs.
No game better illustrated the reason behind the second-half drop-off better than the season finale at St. Louis. With a chance to get to 20 wins on the season, a plateau that still hasn’t ever been reached by a Colorado pitcher, Jimenez threw a gem. He gave up zero runs and just three hits across 8.0 innings of work, but the Rockies lost 1-0 in 11 innings.
Jimenez’s memorable campaign established single-season franchise records that still stand. He set the mark for wins (19), WHIP (1.12), hits allowed per nine innings (6.66) and shutouts (2). The hurler also led the National League in win percentage (.704) and finished third in the Cy Young voting.
Pitching doesn’t often garner headlines in Colorado. But for one season, Ubaldo Jimenez showed that it’s possible to dominate from the mound in the Mile High City.
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Wanna hear more about this Mile High Milestone? Tune into “The Rundown” at noon or check out the show on YouTube to hear Richie Carni and a special guest take a walk down memory lane.
