Rox Recap 6/18/08 (The Series Where I Can't Possibly Lose)

You gettin on this train? The Rockies are rollin down the track, comin to your cities, sleepin with your daughters, huntin your big game animals, and drinkin all your Yoo-Hoo and Coors...all the while still findin the time to win baseball games. Alright, enough with the Wyoming dialect (that's taking g's off the end of words. I know, it's weird, but there's only so many of us.) With the 4-2 victory over my Tribe tonight, the Rocko's have now won 5 straight series (for the sake of brevity I won't count the series they technically won against the Braves in April that was just concluded with Monday night's makeup game...so much for brevity.) You have to wonder what gives, but really the Rockies are winning games how they should be: solid starting pitching, occasional timely hitting, the longball, and a lights-out bullpen. The Rox have now won 10 of 14, own the best record in June in the National League and also the best record in Interleague play for said league. League. Though some questions about playing time and roster spots will soon need to be dealt with with Tulo and Grimesy set to come off the DL as early as Friday, dare I say it's almost fun to watch the Rockies right now? Ew, I feel dirty.

1) The Rockies and the Indians are almost identical teams this season. I should know because I follow both with the fervor of a 13 year old girl at a Jonas Brothers concert. They both had their seasons ended by the Jerk Sox last year, were both loaded with expectations and World Series aspirations at the beginning of the season but were quickly cut down by ineffectiveness, underachieving, no clutch hitting, poor starting pitching, a shaky bullpen, and the injury bug. The Rockies had Big Daddy, Tulo, Barmes, and Hawpe all hit the DL around the same time and the Indians now sport a star-studded injury report including Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, Fausto Carmona, and Jake Westbrook. Though Grady Sizemore has picked up some of the slack since the team turned into the Buffalo Bisons (redundant I know), his boyish good looks and legion of female fans could only do so much to help the Tribe win. That being said, the Rockies could care less if Victor Hugo were on the disabled list because they're just out there to win a ballgame. They don't have time to feel sorry for the Tribe because no one took it easy on them when they were fielding a AAA team.

2) One guy who's going to have his playing time cut considerably with the return of Tulo and Barmes is Jeff Baker and right now he's playing like he knows tomorrow is Independence Day and Will Smith just went on vacation. In the last week or so he's raised his average from a paltry .220 to .276 and is finally starting to hit with the power he promised in September of 2006 when he hit .368 with 5 home runs and 21 rbis in just 22 games. He homered for the second straight game, this one finished with a lighter jog around the bases as opposed to his inside-the-Sarah-Jessica-Parker (otherwise known as the Matthew Broderick) on Tuesday. The Rockies are also 9-2 in his last 11 starts at second base. It's hard to imagine taking his bat out of the lineup right now and Skip Hurdle is going to have some decisions to make very soon.

3) Has the perfect storm passed for Jeff Francis in 2008? Though he has only 3 wins this year compared to 6 losses, it's not like he was just a one year wonder. In his first three seasons he won 14, 14, and 17 games. Not exactly fluke-worthy. It was only a matter of time before he remembered that he actually got Cy Young Award votes last year and began pitching like an ace. In his last four starts, the Franchise is 2-1 with a 2.88 ERA and tonight threw 6 solid innings, only surrendering 5 hits, 2 runs (1 earned) and did not walk a batter. If we can get Jeff on board with Cookie pitching the way he is, we could have the top of the rotation Rockies fans have dreamed was possible the past few seasons.

4) Taylor Buchholz has been so disgustingly effective this season, he's leading the Major Leagues in pitches per inning, all while maintaining a near spotless 1.47 ERA. He came into the game averaging 12.4 pitches per inning. In his 3 outs of work tonight? 13 pitches. There's something to be said for consistency...

As much as I feel bad for my Tribe at the pounding they've taken from my Rockies this series, it sure is nice to see the home team start to put it together. They're impossibly only 8 games behind the Diamondbacks for first place and finally won their 30th game of the season making their record a sterling 30-42. If the Rockies were an American League team, they'd win the World Series every year. Think about it. Maybe Hank Steinbrenner is right. Just make every team an American League team, so baseball could have even less to do with strategy and more in common with Blurnball.

Go Powell Pioneers.