Rock Solid Recap: I Prefer That Jason Hammel

Rockies 5, Astros 1

No mystery tonight...

Winning Player: Jason Hammel

I said something to this effect recently.

When Jason Hammel starts avoiding the disaster inning, he'll turn into one damn solid starter in a big league rotation.  

Seems Hammel has gotten, or is in the process of getting over that hump. A good indication of that was tonight's second inning.  The first two batters reached on infield singles. If anything is a recipe for disaster, it's making two solid pitches, forcing two weak swings, and getting no outs to show for it.

That didn't happen tonight.  Hammel got the 6-3 double play off the bat of Tommy Manzella, then struck out the pitcher to end the threat.  Hammel did a pretty good job of limiting his traffic from that point on, but the real key to his success was that great pitch when the situation called for a great pitch.  A hit allowed there and who knows which direction this game goes in.

Offense

It wasn't a dazzling offensive performance, but it featured five Rockies recording multiple hits: Ryan Spilborghs, Brad Hawpe (slight surprise), Miguel Olivo (no surprise), Melvin Mora (professional hitter) and Clint Barmes, whose two-run double opened the scoring in the second inning.

I was especially encouraged by Brad Hawpe taking one the other way for a hit.  Olivo and Mora also did a good job focusing on rightcenter field.  I wish we saw more of that when this team was on the road.

Overall this goes down as one of the more solid Rockies wins on the season.  That's despite a 9th inning that featured a mild drama.  Unfortunately it resulted in Tracy using Manny Corpas in a game that was 5-0 going into the 9th, but it's not a terrible big deal because he was warming a little when it was still 3-0.

Manny needed only 4 pitches to close it out.

You know what I'm noticing?  I have far fewer thoughts when the Rockies play well and win.  Let's pull for another quick recap tomorrow.