Recap: Marlins 6, Rockies 5
Turning point: The game was pretty much over when Josh Johnson stepped on the mound. He no-hit the Rockies through 6 2/3 innings until Garrett Atkins homered and was perfect through four until Brad Hawpe walked to lead off the fifth inning. The Marlins scored in five different innings, but the biggest run came in eighth inning when Wes Helms singled, went to second on a sacrifice, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly. It turned out to be the winning run when the Rockies scored four times in the ninth.
At the plate: The Rockies, helpless for most of the game against Josh Johnson, rallied in the ninth inning. Troy Tulowitzki tripled and scored on an error. Chris Iannetta added a three-run home run with two outs to make it 6-5 . . . Garrett Atkins’ home run was his eighth. He added another RBI on a groundball in the ninth . . . The Rockies also attempted to rally in the eighth inning. Iannetta and Seth Smith walked, but Carlos Gonzalez struck out to end the inning . . . Troy Tulowitzki just missed a home run to lead off the ninth, but settled for his eighth triple . . . Ian Stewart struck out in his first three at-bats but singled in the ninth inning . . . Smith was the only Rockies starter to not strike out at least once in the game.
On the mound: Jason Hammel struggled through four innings. He allowed three runs on six hits and four walks . . . Adam Eaton relieved Hammel in the fifth and pitched three solid innings. He didn’t allow a run until Dan Uggla hit a two-run home run with one out in the seventh inning . . . Joe Beimel allowed a run on a wild pitch in the eighth inning, which turned out to be the winning run . . . Josh Johnson left with one out in the eighth inning after allowing one hit and three walks while striking out 11 . . . Renyel Pinto recorded both of his outs in the eighth inning on strikeouts . . . Brendan Donnelly allowed three baserunners — two hits and an error — in the ninth but recorded a strikeout of his own . . . Leo Nunez allowed a three-run home run but got Todd Helton to pop out to end the game.
Hammel was just awful. Again. I would imagine that was his last start. Do we even trust him in the bullpen?
Seven strikeouts of the first nine hitters on strictly fastballs. Josh Johnson has great stuff, but whatever the scouting report was… Throw it in the garbage. Burn it. Rewrite it.
All things considered, Hammel is still a decent fifth starter. Not many teams have one that is clearly better than him. Without many true to choose from, might as well stick with him a bit. He has shown he’s capable of being lights every now and then.
The strike zone was pretty awful tonight, too, which makes Johnson’s start all the more impressive and Hammel’s look worse than it was.
I would say stick with Hammel for a couple more starts and then as rosters expand maybe revisit Chacin as the replacement in September if J Hammel can’t get himself turned around by then. He has shown e.g. June that he can pitch and as Townie said he wasnt as bad as it looked really. I don’t believe he has these control issues normally. Johnson was great. The Rockies rallied in the ninth and just came up short. That’s baseball.
Hope they bounce back tomorrow.
If I am not mistaken, the Rox have struck out 37 times in their last three road games. Correct me if I am wrong, please, as that is a scary stat!
Correction: 30 times in the last three road games; that is still still a scary stat.
Correction again: Bob was right, I , for some reason, only looked at the starters strikeouts. Bob is right by writing the Rox have struck 37 times the last 3 road games. That is pathetic.
For me, the frustrating part of the game wasn’t the strikeouts, it was Adam Eaton pitching that last inning of his in a 2 run ball game. I understand bringing him in to pitch in relief of Hammel, but IMO, he shouldn’t have gone out for that last one. You’re in a two run ball game, being dominated by a guy that doesn’t have a low enough pitch count to go the distance. We rallied, but when you are down 5 runs in the ninth 99 times out of 100 you lose. much easier to overcome a 2 run deficit.
Dustin, I can’t fault Eaton or Tracy. Eaton had a clean fourth, pitched great to strand a guy in the fifth, and really was one bad pitch short of having a scoreless seventh. I just shake my head that had Beimel not thrown that wild pitch, the sixth and ultimately deciding run would not have scored. However, we have all been around long enough to know that that is how baseball works. Even a seemingly insignificant miscue can turn out to haunt you later. Just a part of why we love this game!
Today’s game is not on TV?
I am guessing this is b/c Fox has the Mets/Giants game at 2pm and the Rockies game is at 4?
Makes perfect sense …why would we want to watch the wild card leader play a team that is 2 back?
Amazingly frustrating – thanks for letting me vent.
Marc: probably. This has happened before this season; I think it has to do with the Fox national contract and I guess some interaction with Fox sports net (since other regional networks are carrying their teams games).
The one thing I’d say about Dustin’s comment is that pulling Eaton is also defensible. It is Adam Eaton after all, and he’d already gone 2 innings and so was about to hit the lineup for a 2nd time. Eaton pitched well in 10 starts in the Springs and in his first three Rockies innings, but it’s hard to forget that the last time the guy finished a MLB season with an ERA under 5 was 2005, when he pitched in Petco.
I’m kind of hoping that once Fogg is rested enough, that we decide to call up Herges or Hynick from Colorado Springs. I never really understood the decision to call up Eaton (the only way he should’ve been on the team is like the 2007 situation) besides to eat few innings if a starter didn’t last, and IMO, Herges and Hynick could’ve done the role a lot better.
Hammel really needs to get over his struggles soon before he finds that Fogg, Chacin, Hynick, or Rogers have replaced him in the rotation.
I do like the idea of Fogg being the #5 guy over Hammel – at least right now. He’s more of an innings eater than Hammel, but is good for about the same ERA.
Fogg is good at Coors.
Hammel is not.
I’d give him another start (it’ll be the Nats) before we get a true feel about Hammel. The series against the Dodgers is what scares me.
Couple reasons he didn’t pull Eaton.
1) His spot in the order never came up.
2) With Fogg not available for one more night, you’d risk getting your bullpen completely out of whack should the game go 12-13 innings.
I know, it’s frustrating when you look back at how the game actually played out. But, then again, if the Rockies hold the game at 3-1, we see Florida’s closer to start the 9th inning rather than Donnelly. I’m not shy about being critical of Tracy is those situations, but I think he did alright last night.
I was very impressed that we hit the bullpen pretty hard. Johnson was just too good, even the best hitting team wouldn’t have been able to hit him.
Marc, I agree with 100% on the television coverage. I have MLB extra innings(live in San Diego)and its not being shown anywhere! I finally looked on the Marlins website and they are promoting that it as an MLB.TV exclusive! (way to spin it, MLB suits) so possibly you can watch it online. Of course we could blame it the Marlins for having a 4pm ET start.
GO ROCKIES!!
Is it a 4pm ET start, or a 6PM ET start? I’m seeing it as 6.
Considering how many teams do not carry long relievers, it seems really bizarre if the decision to pitch Eaton a 3rd inning was based on whether the pen could handle a 12-13 inning game. The pen has not been taxed lately. I assume they let Eaton go a 3rd inning because of how he did in his first 3 innings with the club.
Fogg is a nice insurance policy but in 183.2 innings at Coors he has a 5.68 ERA with 30 HR allowed. So he’s better than Hammel has been there, but I’m not sure I’d say he’s been good.
I hope it doesn’t come to replacing him.
I am pretty sure it’s 6pm est.
Marc -
My schedule here has 4:10 mountain time. So you are correct.
I think it is pretty stupid that we in Colorado can’t watch the Rockies game. There is no easy way for us to go to the game. MLB rules are just plain stupid and court the major networks who refuse to believe that the Rockies are in the Wild Card lead because they never put them on the game of the week.
Get with it MLB!
Peter S, the problem was the Marlins for some reason decided to start the game earlier than most teams on Sautrday so it ran into the blackout window. Florida TV is more than a little upset. I believe it happens to them six times this year so instead of a Saturday night telecast with decent ratings which helps ad revenue they get 1:10 p.m., mid week games that don’t draw much in terms of ratings.
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