Recap: Phillies 3, Rockies 1
Turning point: Aaron Cook gave up a leadoff homer to Paul Bako in the fifth, his first homer of the season. With one out in the inning, Jimmy Rollins tripled off the wall in right-center. Rollins scored on Shane Victorino’s high bouncer to second base to give the Phillies a 3-1 lead.
At the plate: The Rockies scored their only run in the first when Dexter Fowler opened the game with a double, took third on Seth Smith‘s infield single and scored on Todd Helton‘s sacrifice fly. …Helton extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single on his final at-bat. Helton has had one hit in each of the past eight games of the streak and is 12-for-46 (.261) overall in the streak. …Fowler and Smith, making his first start since Sunday, each had two hits. Fowler went 5-for-12 in the series and in his past four games is 6-for-14 with one triple, three doubles, two RBI and two runs scored….The Rockies were shut out three times on their 5-5 trip, scored four runs in their losses and just 33 runs overall.
On the mound: Cook’s seven-game winning streak ended, as he lost for the first time in 12 starts since June 1. He left after five innings with a sprained right big toe, an injury he suffered backing up third base on Rollins’ triple and twisting to catch an errant throw. ..Matt Daley made his 11th consecutive scoreless outing since July 10. During that span, which has covered 11 1/3 innings, opponents are three for their past 37 (.081). …Franklin Morales pitched two scoreless innings, his longest outing in 14 relief appearances. …Cliff Lee made his Phillies home debut and improved to 2-0 with a 1.12 ERA with Philadelphia, allowing six hits and one run in seven innings with one walk and nine strikeouts. …Ryan Madson gave up a leadoff single to Helton in the eighth but ended the inning by getting Garrett Atkins to ground into a double play. …Cherry Creek High School grad Brad Lidge gave up a pinch-hit two-out single to Brad Hawpe in the ninth but struck out pinch hitter Ian Stewart to earn his 21st save.
Numbers game: 3 home runs allowed by Cook in 11 2/3 innings in his past two starts after yielding one homer in 38 innings in his six previous starts.
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How long does a sprained big right toe take to heal? …here’s to hoping it less than 5 days
If Cook is out for more than a start, will Fogg be starting in his place?
Sorry, I was anonymous. Forgot to put my name in there.
– I imagine getting Cook out of the game early will increase his chances of making his next start, but toe injuries can be among the most annoying/nagging/lingering.
– Great job by Daley and Morales today keeping the game close. Now that everyone in the ‘pen has a pretty clear cut role I think we’ll see that become a strength as well.
– Losing the last two in Philly were tough, but I feel real good about the team overall. The series with Chicago will be very tough, but is very winnable. The Cubs have a terrible bullpen and an outfield defense that will struggle to cover ground in Coors. The big key will be getting the ball in play more consistently and getting to their ‘pen early and often.
Rox had several men on base but couldn’t get that hit to move them along…frustrating.
Despite Barmes’ stellar defense I’m surprised he didn’t get a day off…hate to see him dig a deeper hole for himself offensively. Wonder how long Tracy will keep him in there.
Chicago is always tough here and they typically have a ton of fans in the stands at Coors. Should be a pretty exciting weekend!
It cant hurt to let EY get a couple spot sparts. I mean Quintanilla cant even see the mendoza line, as unfornate as that is. EY hittin .300, he may not be able to play defense, but Barmes needs a break, and Quintanilla can not help.
Man this is some kind of slide barmes is in. I hope he can pull out of it soon. Team looks good though. Gotta be happy with this road trip with the way it started out in new York
I think the time has come to win big with the youngins or go home and try again next year. Cargo and Fowler need to start consistently and bat 1 and 2 in the lineup. I also think that Atkins needs to start at 3rd for the rest of the year and Barmes and Stewart should platoon at 2nd. Smith and Spilly need to focus on pinch hitting for the stretch run. What do y’all think?
Wow, Marcus, i think that if you put Fowler and CarGo at the first at-bat positions you don’t know what to expect. If you want to iclude Atkins in the Line-up, you would better move Tulow to 2 at-bat and Atkins at 5. Seth Smith has proved to be good when he replaces Fowler. But you’re right about the Barmes/Stewart sitch at 2nd base, the only concern would be about Atkins’ defense in 3rd.
Undoubtly, Tracy managed well the series against Phillies, but he needs to show the team a little bit more agressive.
GO ROCKIES!!!
Even though we scored 8 in the 1st game, only 1 run in the last two. Granted, we faced two, tough LHP, but the offense is very inconsistent. Ianetta is just not going to get going this year and neither is Stewart. Barmes is sinking deeper and Hawpe hasn’t hit a HR in how long? Thank God for Tulo. They may have to give up some defense and get the guys that are hitting the ball in the line-up, which is Atkins, Smith, and even Spilly. The bullpen is lights out.
I’m fine with the way Tracy is switching between Spilly/Atkins and Smith or Gonzalez/Stewart combinations depending on whether they’re facing a RHP or LHP. What I don’t like is when Tracy starts doing what Hurdle was doing the entire time he was there and that’s changing the lineup order, basically experimenting and moving people around depending on how hot/cold they are.
Barmes will come out of his slump, that’s just inevitable. A month ago he was one of the hottest 2B out there. Keep him in, keep him batting second. Keep Tulo batting fifth. Keep Hawpe as cleanup. Leave Gonzalez at the bottom of the lineup when he’s in.
What Tracy did was add some consistency when he came and the team responded to it. If Tulo is killing the ball at the 5-spot, why move him? So he can get .03 more AB per game? Even if the team goes cold for a stretch here and there, I’d like the lineup to stay the same day-to-day.
I think Stewart needs to continue to play. His defense is worth him playing. He hasn’t hit much but Atkins hasn’t either. He had the one good game against Philly but take that out and there isn’t much there either. Stewart is the future so let him play. Stewart also hit pretty good for average last year when he was playing everyday, so I just think it’s one of those inconsistent things you get from young players.
Barmes won’t break out of his slump until he figures out how to take a darn pitch. He swings at everything and the pitchers know that. They don’t have to throw a strike and they will still retire him on 3-4 pitches. Put Barmes on the bench for 3-4 days like they did Fowler. It seemed to help Fowler, so maybe it will help Barmes.
Iannetta has been a huge disapointment this year too. Can’t believe he hasn’t hit better. Especially with how well he played in the WBC, I just knew he was going to have a big year.
The lineup also will never “click” with you’re 3-4 hitters in Helton and Hawpe not hitting for power. Helton just doesn’t have any pop left it doesn’t seem to me. Hawpe hasn’t been helping either.
Tulo has been pretty darn good in my opinion, but he can’t do it alone.
Smith still should be getting more playing time. The guy is hitting right at .300 and all we hear is how valuable of a pinch hitter he is. If he hits .300, he should be playing quite a bit. This guy doesn’t not hurt this lineup at all when he starts.
The Rox have too many young players still trying to find their way in the bigs(Fowler, CarGo, Stewart, Iannetta) and too many inconsistent vets(Atkins, Barmes, Torrealba, even Hawpe right now)that are hurting the offensive production. When they are on, they are on. But too many nights of being shut out or only putting up 1-2 runs to be winning a lot of games right now. I never thought I would say this, but the Rox have the pitching in my opinion to make the playoffs. It’s going to be whether or not they can hit enough to make it. And I know they are second in runs scored, but it’s too much of a hit or miss kind of thing. Put up 4-5 a night instead of 8 one night then only score 1 the next two nights combined.
I like the platoon of the three of Smith, CarGo and Fowler with Spilly coming off the bench. While I like Smith’s pinch hitting capabilities, I would rather see him get 20 at bats a week instead of 5-8. He has done well in the starting role and with this offense they need some consistency. I would like them to sit Barmes but only for a couple of games, I am not sure that a platoon at 2nd base is the answer. I would think the one at 3rd will be the way to go the rest of the way. Barmes hitting again is key and I agree he does need to develop some more patience.
We all could develop some more patience too though. The pitching has been above what we could have expected. The offense has been below that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the offense comes out of their funk over the next 30 games and the team batting average jumps ten points by being at home so much. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Atkins ends up leading the team in August in RBI’s. He has had his rest and looks better at the plate.
You guys are being way too hard on Tracy. Look, he’s sending close to the optimal lineup out there most every day. Spilly and Atkins on Tuesday vs a lefty: 4-8, HR. What happened the final 2 games is nothing more than good pitching beating good hitting. I still love the platoons. Anyone out there pining for the return of Clint Hurdle’s “Sunday lineup?”. More pointless starts for Quintanilla? Tracy hasn’t done that so far, and it’s a huge improvement. And Barmes is what he is: very good glove, subpar bat, very streaky. Down the stretch I wouldn’t mind getting Stewart in there some at 2B since there’s value in having both him and Atkins in there. And when EY comes up in Sept they’ll be able to make more in-game switches. But don’t expect EY to save the day. His speed may help a bit in Sept in situations, but his minor league stats don’t call out “star in the making.”. If they did he’d be playing 2b at Coors right now.
Nice call on EY Jr, Agbayani. I doubt he’ll ever be more than a below average major league player. His defense is sub-par and his offense is all based on speed. That may work in the minors but not in the big leagues. Quite frankly, he may be better suited as trade material rather than in the Coors Field home dugout.
Well Marcus for one night it looked pretty good having Fowler and CarGo at the top. Funny how things work out sometimes isn’t it? I still like Smith in there, but for one night at least it looked like Tracy pulled the right string.
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