Quick Hits
–The Rockies were last at .500 when they were 4-4 on April 15 after a 5-2 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The Rockies were a season-high two games over .500 on April 10 (3-1) and a season-low 12 games below .500 on June 3 (20-32).
–Manager Jim Tracy’s all-time record returned to .500 (577-577) as the Rockies won for the 15th time in 20 games since he replaced Clint Hurdle.
–Ubaldo Jimenez, who evened his record at 6-6 this season and 22-22 in his career, is 3-0 with a 2.43 ERA (29 2/3 innings, 8 earned runs) in four June starts with wins in his past three games.
–The Rockies are assured of their first winning homestand, having gone 5-1 with three games remaining this weekend with the Pirates.
–Todd Helton broke a string of nine hitless at-bats and a drought of 54 at-bats without a homer with his eighth of the season. Helton’s first homer since June 1 at Houston followed a two-run homer by Clint Barmes, giving the Rockies back-to-back homers for the fifth time this season. The other occasions were Troy Tulowitzki and Chris Iannetta at Arizona on April 6, Yorvit Torrealba and Tulowitzki at Arizona on April 8, Matt Murton and Torrealba on May 6 against the Giants and Brad Hawpe and Garrett Atkins at Houston on June 4.
–Carlos Gonzalez hit his first homer with the Rockies and ended a stretch of 95 at-bats without a homer dating to Aug. 14, 2008, when he was with the A’s. That homer was also against the Rays, a two-run shot off James Shields.
–Barmes (2-for-4) raised his average to .296, the highest it has been since April 13 when he was hitting .300 (6-for-20). He entered the game leading the National League in hits this month and now has 27. His home run was his first since June 6 at St. Louis, ending a homerless span of 42 at-bats, and his first at home since May 26 against the Dodgers.
–Huston Street has earned saves in seven consecutive outings, one short of his career-high. He did that twice, the last time April 6-27, 2008. Street’s two strikeouts gave him 34 in 29 innings this season with eight walks, two of them intentional.
–The Rockies are 6-10 in one-run games after losing their first eight. Their 7-2 record in interleague is the best among NL clubs this season.
Wow, what a run. This is great. The streak was one thing but to come back from a shellacking that broke the streak and take a series from a pretty good team that’s also heating up is another feather in their cap. And while I thought they’d get back to .500, I didn’t think it would happen anywhere near so soon.
And while players shouldn’t look ahead, I don’t see why fans can’t.
The Rockies are still trailing or tied with 5 other teams for the wildcard, but after the bad start, 96 games left, still 8 more home games than road games left, that’s not a bad position to be in.
I believe it was Garza who Car-go took deep, and not James Shields. I’m often wrong though.
Nick,
I didn’t write that as clearly as I should have. It was Garza who gave up the homer to Gonzalez yesterday for the first homer he hit since taking Shields deep last year.
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