As far as weekends go for the Rockies, let’s just file this one in the Weekend at Bernie’s II folder: the killer ending made up for any vomit inducing qualities one may experience in the first two thirds of the film. Friday and Saturday had that eerie déjà vu feeling of last Friday and Saturday where the D-Bags bashed, bopped, and bludgeoned Rockies pitching by outscoring us 20-5 in a three game sweep at Coors. In the first two games in the desert this past weekend, the Rockies played the same infectious tune that’s been stuck in their heads for a majority of their games thus far. It must have been some Panic at the Disco song because nobody can listen to that shit and not want to go quietly into the good night. We were once again outscored 18-5 in those games as we ran up against what is quite possibly the top starting pitching duo in all of baseball in Brandon Webb and Dan Haren. I didn’t quite cry myself to sleep, but I imbibed a few stiff drinks and thought long and hard about what the coming six months would bring for me and my beloved Rox. Then Sunday happened. Sorry if this is a long post, but there’s much to discuss.
1) Alright, I understand that the Rox faced two of the best pitchers in the game during the Baby Backs series, but we also countered with our ace in Jeff Francis and Frankie Morales who had shut out this same team a week earlier. Consistently we’ve shown so far that we’re fantastic at being incredibly inconsistent, but thank Elway the offense finally showed up so we can finally say we’ve beaten our bitter rivals at least once this year. Atkins, Holliday, and the National League leader in perseverance and peer support Clint Barmes all went yard as we rattled the Snakes (sorry) 13-5. Everybody seemed to get big hits when they weren’t getting beaned (which will definitely have some bearing on a future game between these two) and the lead was never really in doubt though Aaron Cook seemed to want to make it interesting for a hot second. Hurdle should definitely consider keeping the scorching Barmes in the lineup for at least the beginning of the Padres series at second base. Jayson Nix is playing fine, but I feel in order to keep the offense rolling, Barmes needs to get a few more at bats.
2) Tulo still hasn’t found his stride yet at the plate (he’s hitting .159 with 0 rbis as of Monday) which led Clint Hurdle to sit him down for the finale on Sunday. Thinking about it this weekend, however, I realized that last year he started out slowly too (hitting only .185 near the end of April) but eventually finished with the greatest season ever for an NL rookie shortstop after Hurdle held him out of the lineup for a couple of games. Tulo is too good of a player and too hard of a worker to be held down for too long. He’s made quality swings at pitches lately but has been fouling them straight back, putting him in the hole in too many counts and forcing him to chase poor pitches. Once he has a multi hit game in this upcoming San Diego series (and I’m positive he will. You heard it hear first), he’ll return to form and this offense is going to esplode.
3) Congrats to National League Player of the Week, number 5 in your programs number 1 in your hearts, Matt Holliday, who continues to prove that his better is better than your better. During the week, Big Daddy racked up a .480 average with 2 bombs and 10 rbis to go along with extending his streak of home runs in at bats immediately after getting hit by a pitch. Seriously, I wish I had the stat of how many times he takes the ultimate revenge on a pitcher by going deep in his next at bat. He was plunked by Brandon Medders in the 6th, a severe no no if you pitch in the National League. In his next at bat in the 8th inning he crushed a 3-2 pitch from Doug Slaten off the wall in left and followed that in the 9th by destroying a Tony Pena fastball 400+ feet into the left field bleachers. He did the same thing to Micah Owings in Game 4 of last year’s NLCS and everyone remembers what happened on September 19, 2006. Even if you don’t, I’ll tell you. Giants pitcher Matt Cain hit Holliday in the middle of the back in the third inning. The storm clouds were gathering. His next at bat, Cain tries to throw a breaking ball first pitch and Matt hits it 496 feet off the scoreboard at Coors. As he’s running the bases, all he does is scream “Yeah, bitch! Yeah, bitch! How do you like that, bitch?!” to Cain. One of the greatest highlights I’ve ever seen and if I could find it online, I’d give you the link, but I’ve searched high and low to no avail.
4) I don’t know what to do about Jeff Francis yet because I know he can pitch. He knows he can pitch. Clint Hurdle knows he can pitch, but something’s just not clicking for him. No, it doesn’t help that he’s had to face Brandon Webb twice and will face Jake Peavy on Thursday, but that’s the life of a number 1 starting pitcher in the best division in baseball. What’s extremely encouraging though is the performance of Aaron Cook thus far. He deserves better than his 1-1 record shows because his last two starts have been fairly phenomenal. He’s mixing up all of his pitches and his sinker dives faster than the career of Mario Lopez after Saved by the Bell (No offense, Mario, you know we tight.) He’s working quickly, working efficiently, and he’s democratic as always, staying away from all those fascist strikeouts.
5) I will soon print a retraction of my previous article on how Justin Upton doesn’t deserve any credit in the national media. Kid can flat out rake. Anybody have some crow for me to eat?
Our West Coast swing takes us to the heavy sea air of Pets Pets Pets! Park for a three game set with the Padres (that means Fathers in espanol.) What say we take the series? Would everybody be ok with that? Anyone? Bueller?
3 comments:
Nice Dylan Thomas reference. With all the ridiculous movies, music, etc. that we reference, people will think we're morons.
They won't be wrong. But how do you think Woodrow got to where he is today?
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