After watching today's come-from-behind victory of the Colorado Rockies over the San Francisco Giants, I was left with the stirrings of hope. Hope that the Rockies are on the verge of building up some momentum heading into the next quarter of the long season. Hope that Ubaldo Jimenez is beginning to find some answers to the curious ineffectiveness over his first 6 starts of this, so far, winless 2011 campaign. Hope that Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton can continue to produce results in a manner commensurate with our starstruck expectations. And, hope that Franklin Morales and Felipe Paulino can continue to be interested spectators as the Rockies move forward.
The funny thing about baseball is that the talent that major league ballplayers possess often makes us wonder why they cannot duplicate their successes on a more consistent basis. The casual, yet fervent, baseball fan is continually frustrated when major league hitters don't hit every time. They curse when pitchers are battered in crucial situations. They second-guess managers when certain decisions are made in relation to game situations. This frustration is what makes baseball so interesting. Every decision, every pitch, every situation, every substitution can be dissected and critcized. This is especially true when your team is losing, or under-performing. Baseball, at any level, is a very simple game, but to succeed at a high level consistently is very, very difficult. To succeed at the major league level is truly mercurial.
Ubaldo Jimenez began today's contest by throwing 7 consecutive fastballs, none over 93 mph (if you believe the Coors Field radar gun). We're used to seeing his pitches touch 95-98, at least last year, during his unbelievable first half-season last year. But, he got the Giants retired 1-2-3 in the first inning. He continued to throw fastballs almost exclusively in the second inning, when 1B Aubrey Huff lined a double to the left-centerfield gap and SS Miguel Tejada grounded a single between 2B Jonathan Herrera and 1B Ty Wigginton to drive in the game's first run. Both were good pitches, give the hitters credit for putting good wood on the offerings, but it was like C Chris Iannetta was specifically instructed to call nothing but heaters to get Ubaldo going. And, velocity on the pitches never exceeded 94 mph. The Rockies got out of the inning without further damage. Giants pitcher, Jonathan Sanchez, looked as though he was going to make this a very tough day for Rockies hitters. One mistake, he tried to sneak a low slider past SS Troy Tulowitzki in the bottom of the second, but Tulo smacked the not-too-low pitch over the left field wall to tie the score.
Jimenez got the first two outs in the 3rd, then gave up three straight hits and a walk as the Giants took a 3-1 lead. Innings 4 through 7 featured only a total of three harmless singles and a double by the Giants and a lonely single by the Rockies. Ubaldo departed after the 7th inning, with the Rockies trailing 3-1. Matt Belisle surrendered a harmless single by Huff and finished the 8th with the score unchanged.
Giants pitcher Sanchez, who owns a no-hitter (San Diego Padres on July 9, 2009), was cruising along with only 71 pitches through the first 7 innings. He didn't retire a single batter in the eighth. RF Ryan Spilborghs singled to left, Iannetta got an infield hit that Giants 3B Mark DeRosa couldn't handle. Pinch hitter, Alfredo Amezaga laid down a very nice sacrifice bunt between the third base line and pitcher's mound. Sanchez fielded it cleanly, and threw the ball past 2B Mike Fontenot covering first. The ball rolled down the right field line as Spilborghs scored and Iannetta moved to third. Amezega, inexplicably, remained at first, which could have been critical, as the next at-bat unfolded. CF Dexter Fowler faced left-handed Giants reliever Javier Lopez, and proceeded to grind out a spectactular 8-pitch at-bat, fouling off four consecutive offerings before blasting a deep gapper to right-center over a curiously drawn-in Giant outfield. Unfortunately, the ball landed on the warning track, and bounced over the fence, into the Giants' bullpen. Since Amezega had failed to advance to second base on Sanchez's throwing boo-boo, he had to stop at third on Fowler's ground-rule double. Iannetta scored from third on the play to tie the score at 3. Lopez remained in the game to face LF Carlos Gonzalez. Javier Lopez (former Rockie) is a side-winding lefty, who is especially tough on left-handed batters, but Gonzalez pulled a sharp ground ball that found the hole between Huff and Fontenot and scored Amezega and Fowler with the third and fourth runs of the inning, erasing Amezega's base-running gaffe. These are little things that didn't happen to bite the Rockies in the ass during their losing skid. This was the second consecutive game that CarGo drove in the winning runs to cap Colorado Comebacks against the defending World Champs. Huston Street gave up a one-out single to LF Cody Ross, but induced CF Andres Torres to ground into a game-ending double play to secure his 14th save, and reward Belisle with his 4th win (against two losses).
I sincerely hope that the Rockies can continue to do all the right things on their road trip through Philadelphia and Milwaukee. The Rockies regained first place in the National League West with the two-game sweep of the Giants. With the first one-fourth of the season now gone, the promise that the Rockies showed us in the first three weeks of is beginning to give us hope that this is just the new start to a championship season.
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