DENVER — Pssst. Need to tell you something about these Rockies.

Weird bunch, man.

They’re going about this pennant chase all wrong. Well, maybe it’s not wrong, since there’s still 37 games left, so we don’t know yet if it’s wrong. The Rox entered Tuesday only .5 game back of the Diamondbacks in the National League West, which means everything is still on the table and in front of the Rockies.

Wild Card. Missed postseason. Charlie Blackmon Gillette commercial. World Series. Everything.

Colorado Rockies' 2019 regular-season schedule released; Red Sox, AL East teams coming to Coors Field

But how they’re going about it? In one of the most difficult ways possible. That’s probably a better way to say it, and let’s use soggy, soupy Tuesday night at Coors Field as the example. For the first time in a long time the Rockies played an opponent that wasn’t good. They’d played 46 straight games against teams that were above .500, and for context, only two teams in National League history have ever done such a terrible thing to themselves over 46 games. The Rockies promptly caught fire, going 30-16 against the cream of the crop in the NL and in the AL. Now here they are, in a pennant chase.

So how do they celebrate the end of a gantlet? They lose to the Padres, 4-3, Tuesday night. Trap game’s exist, no matter what anyone says, and here’s proof: the Padres are now 50-78. These weird Rox? They’re 23-24 against teams with a losing record, 45-33 against teams with a .500 or winning record.

Like we were saying, weird bunch.

It looked for a hot second like the Rockies had pulled another one of their ninth-inning jobs when Chris Iannetta popped one to the warning track in left. No-go. The ball fell into a Padre glove.

“I was hoping. I definitely didn’t get all of it. Hit it a little off the end,” said Iannetta, who did find the left-field bleacher seats with a 436-foot homer in the fifth.

The weirdness doesn’t end there. Before the Rockies finish this pennant chase, they must learn how to start. Colorado’s ERA in first innings? 7.70. That’s weird enough that it’s the second-highest first-inning ERA at least since 1974, according to guru Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. That’s a lot of first innings ago.

The Rockies dig themselves a hole, often before they even take an at-bat, and that’s a tough way to win a pennant chase. It’s like the college basketball coach who pairs his star player with four walk-ons, just to see how he handles adversity. And these Rockies handle adversity as well as any team in Colorado. I know a football team around these hills that could take notes.

But they handle first innings with butterfingers. That’s weird, too, because this isn’t your father’s Rockies pitching staff. It’s a staff of starters that’s kept them in a pennant race. Yet the Light Rail train to DIA starts better than the Rockies. Blackmon’s Jeep — the one he’s had since high school — starts better than the Rockies. When the first inning’s over, you take a deep breath. Best-case scenario it’s a sigh of relief.

Tuesday night, before most of the 27,862 had wiped puddles from their seats, Padres slugger Eric Hosmer launched a home run over the centerfield wall that is scheduled to land on Friday. The moonshot was measured at 438 feet, and just like that (eight pitches into the game!) the Rox were down 2-0 to the Padres — the worst team to oppose the Rockies since the Miami Marlins way back in June.

“Lately it seems like if I throw a lot of balls it doesn’t go well. And if I throw a lot of strikes it doesn’t go well,” said starting pitcher Tyler Anderson, who’s allowed eight homers over his past four starts.

The Rockies believe they haven’t played their best ball yet, and it’s tough to disagree. Bats went cold. Then Jon Gray went cold. Then the bullpen went cold. All those things eventually warmed up, at least to a certain degree, so maybe the only weird part would be if the first-inning woes don’t come around. But to finish this chase the Rockies must master the start.