Recap: Dodgers 3, Rockies 2
Turning point: Dodgers manager Joe Torre called on closer Jonathon Broxton to get a four-out save, and he succeeded. After getting pinch hitter Garrett Atkins to fly out to end the eighth with a runner on first, Broxton gave up consecutive singles to Yorvit Torrealba and pinch hitter Ryan Spilborghs with one out in the ninth. But Broxton struck out Eric Young Jr. and Seth Smith to end the game, finishing a 4-3 homestand for the Rockies.
At the plate: The Rockies had 11 hits but went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. They stranded five runners in the final four innings, including three at second base and had their string of consecutive games with a home run at Coors Field end at 10 games …Carlos Gonzalez, making his first start since suffering a puncture wound near his left thumb after Saturday night’s game, left the game in the top of the fifth after bruising that thumb unsuccessfully trying to make a diving catch of James Loney’s bloop double in the fourth. Gonzalez singled with two out in the third and scored on Smith’s triple. After a walk to Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki singled to score Smith and tie the game at 2. …Torrealba went 2-for-4, extending his season-best hitting streak to eight games. He’s 12-for-31 (.387) during the streak. …Matt Kemp hit a two-run homer in the first after Rafael Furcal opened the game with a walk. Furcal drove in what proved to be the winning run in the sixth, an inning that began with Orlando Hudson’s single followed by Brad Ausmus’ sacrifice. Furcal then singled up the middle to make the score 3-2.
On the mound: Jorge De La Rosa lost for just the third time since June 1 _ he’s 12-3 in 15 starts in that span _ as he gave up eight hits and three runs in seven innings, pitching that long for the first time in three starts. After Furcal’s go-ahead single, De La Rosa gave up a single to Kemp but stranded runners at first and second by getting Andre Ethier to fly out. De La Rosa left the bases loaded in the fifth when Kemp doubled, Manny Ramirez was intentionally walked with two out, Kemp took third on a wild pitch, Casey Blake walked and Loney took a third strike. … Vicente Padilla was the winning pitcher in his Dodgers debut, as he allowed two runs and six hits in five innings, throwing 55 of 80 pitches for strikes.
Numbers game: 0 wins for De La Rosa against the Dodgers in six career starts, including three starts this season. De La Rosa is 0-5 lifetime with a 7.04 ERA (30 2/3 innings, 24 earned runs) in six starts against the Dodgers.
Tough loss. Im really concerned about our offense. Sure they have been facing some good pitching lately (Zito, Linsecum, Kershaw). However, there is no excuse for only getting two runs at home off Vincent Padilla. Our offense really let down another strong start by De La Rosa. It’s not going to get any easier this weekend.
Well these last two losses hurt. Now 4 back, and LA has a pretty easy schedule from here on. It’s going to be tough. Not giving up yet, but it sure would’ve been nice to win today and only be down 2. Also, LA just has our number this year. The last 6 games against LA were well after Tracy took over and they still took 4 out of 6. This series in SF is going to be tough too, the Rox can’t score runs right now, they face Lincecum, Zito and Cain and in SF to boot where the Rox have never fared well. Different team obviously but very tough matchups. And what can you say about todays game, Padilla gets cut by a wild card contending team and the Rox can only scratch out 2 runs against him. This should’ve been a game the Rox put up some offensive numbers. Hawpe just doesn’t look very good rt now either. These games are huge right now, I understand that, but I really think he needs a couple days off. Maybe he would’ve got a day or two off if Fowler wouldn’t of got hurt and Gonzalez wouldn’t of stabbed himself. So that really hurt the Rox too cuz Little EY just isn’t ready to be in the big’s. His inexperience cost the Rox a couple times I thought over the last couple games. Taking 2 of 3 in SF this weekend would be a huge win in my opinion. Of course sweeping them would be the ultimate prize but with the matchups I stated before, 2 of 3 would be great to me. Then come home and take care of business against the NL’s weaker teams. GO ROX!!!
The result of this series speaks to how valuable Fowler and Gonzalez have become to the team. I don’t think it would have changed last night’s result, but today’s game would have been a lot different.
But there’s nothing you can about that.
The Rockies first order of business in San Fran has to be getting a base hit before the 6th inning. Obviously a little sarcasm there, but they absolutely need to jump out in these guys and get that confidence flowing again, or it could be a reallllly long weekend.
Why is EY Jr playing so much? I mean, I understand calling him up. He’s potentially a neat stopgap infield/outfield reserve player and pinch runner. Even pinch hitter in a true pinch. I even understand playing him on Tuesday to let him get his feet wet in the big leagues.
But what’s so wrong with an outfield of Smith-Spilly-Hawpe? Is Tracy under the impression that Spilly is such a poor centerfielder that a guy who’s barely ever played the position (EY Jr) is actually so much better than him as to warrant putting a much weaker bat in the lineup? I don’t get it. Until this move, I’ve generally had nothing to criticize Tracy about regarding his lineups. I might’ve done a thing or two differently from time to time, but all his decisions were reasonable. But this one is just weird.
I’m really pulling for the Rox, but this has been my concern for a while. It would be one thing if we weren’t putting guys on base at all, but putting this many guys on and not being able to move them around is a real achilles heel – something I actually think will improve as the younger players mature. Helton, for example doesn’t always drive guys around when they’re on base, but when he comes up you just have a strong feeling that 9 times out of 10 he’s going to make the pitcher work and put up a real battle. We need more of that kind of tenacity with RISP.
Another good outing by de la Rosa. I’m not really concerned about losing two of three from la. We are not leading the wild card by accident we are leading the wild card because we are the best team in baseball since Tracy took over. We are no accident and barring a major turn around we will be playing October baseball.
A seven game homestand in which the Rockies scored the first run of the game exactly zero times. To be a serious playoff contender, the Rockies offense needs to get in the game early and the Rockies pitchers need to give the offense a chance to give them the lead.
Also, it is clear to me that Tracy likes speed in center field. He’ll take the uncertainty at the plate for real speed in expansive center field. Plus spilly represents good double switch capability late in the game like tonight. There are 3 lineup slots he can put spilly in and basically ensure him an ab in the following inning
I’ve been wondering how long the Rockies can continue with 3rd baseman and catcher hitting in the .220′s . . .
I think that’s been the biggest thing with the Rox inconsistent production out of the lineup, Iannetta and Stewart/Atkins just haven’t had good years. Iannetta has been the most surprising for me just cuz he looked so good early on. I have a lot of confidence in the Rox ability to win the wild card. The Rox’s fault’s are no worse than all the teams chasing them. I just really want to win the darn division and think losing the last 2 to LA really hurt our chances. Considering the weak schedule LA has left to play of course. It’s not over by any means especially considering the Rox go to LA for 3 to end the year.
Baseball Prospectus’ playoff odds are still giving the Rockies a 75% chance of making the postseason. Joe Martinez helped out last night.
I was at the game yesterday, and thinking about the loud boos that Manny Ramirez got. Think Rockies fans will do the same to Jason Giambi? I sure don’t hear it for Matt Herges and Juan Rincon.
Wait–so you guys are saying 7 games of sub-par hitting against the two best pitching staffs in the league, in which the Rockies won 4 of 7, all of sudden mean the Rockies are not serious playoff contenders?
Or that after 128 games, all of a sudden having a .220-hitting catcher and 3rd baseman is going to be a problem?
Was making the playoffs supposed to be easy?
The Rockies have been winning consistently since the June win streak. People have been complaining about their strikeouts and low averages at least since the streak ended. Yet they continue to win. They won even in the stretch where Cook missed a start and blew up in two others. They have the depth and resiliency to pick it up for slumping and injured players.
It is true, they have to continue playing good baseball through the end of the season. Why are you expecting them to stop all of a sudden?
I will echo your comments Mike and also say that I think it’s because this town is in uncharted territory and is going off of history. Since history can’t repeat itself, since this has never really happened before, save for ’95, the pennant chase questions get magnified and the fear of a collapse is most of it since that’s mostly been the history of this franchise.
I think this team is too deep though. I think it’s deep for a reason that just that five outfielders could start on any roster really on a given night when healthy. I think it’s because of the consistency starting pitcher’s starting 124 out of 128 games. It’s because of the defense being mostly stellar. It’s because of timely pinch hitting and coming up in the clutch in the end of the games. It’s then the lock down job of the bullpen as it has solidified itself over the past month really as many quality arms.
This team has consistently answered questions about could it bounce back, could it keep playing well, could it stay in the race, and now it must continue to answer by saying, that they can keep the lead and continue to chase and not give up on the division.
They can and will continue to answer the questions. It won’t be easy, it will be exciting, maddening and a whole lot of fun to follow for the rest of the way now. As fans we can just get front row seats to a fun ride now.
Go Rockies!
First of all it’s easy to point out the things that are wrong with the team when they lose. They could win 1-0 tonight and there prolly wouldn’t be any comments on how bad the hitting was even though they only scored 1 run. All I’m saying is it’s frustrating to lose, and even more so when we can only muster 2 runs off Vincente Padilla. And the reason the Rockies are winning games isn’t because of Iannetta’s and Stewart/Atkins hitting outbursts!! It’s because of good pitching and great defense. Also, there was a lot of luck involved in winning that extra inning game Mike, they won’t comeback from 3 run deficit’s in the 14th very often. So it very well should’ve or could’ve been that the Rox only won 3 out of 7. Like I sd in a previous post, I believe the Rox can win the wild card cuz every other team chasing them has faults equal to or greater than the Rox in my opinion. SF can’t hit a lick! But I want the Rox to win the division, to heck with the wild card, so I believe the hitting needs to step up. Hawpe is included in that too.