Wednesday, July 28, 2010

NL West Recap: 7-27-10

While the Rockies continued their free fall on Tuesday, the rest of the NL West was in action all across the country.



Big win for LA to start a crticial road series.  They stole this game for two reasons.

1) In a rare pinch-hitting appearance, Andre Ethier delivered the only two runs of the game with a single in the 7th inning.  The guy is about as clutch as it gets.

2) Pitching, pitching, and more pitching.  Chad Billingsly six shutout innings.  Hong-Chi-Kuo strikes out FIVE in two scoreless innings.  Big Brozton closes the door in the 9th. That's a nice formula for the Dodgers.

Your top offensive guy gets a night off and he still manages to deliever the biggest hit of the game.  Your pitching makes that hit stand up.  That's winning baseball.  And that's also a manager that truly pushes the right buttons.

San Diego got another nice start from Jon Garland: 6 2/3, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.  They also received two hits from Yorvit Torrealba, who raised his average to .310.

Tonight's pitching matchup features Hiroki Kuroda vs Clayton Richard.  I'm taking LA to steal another and to really start position themselves for their run.



The Josh Johnson/Matt Cain pitching matchup proved to be as even as it looked on paper.  Each man lasted seven innings, walked three, and allowed three runs.  Neither man factored in the decision.

San Francisco won the battle of the bullpens behind Sergio Romo (win) and Brian Wilson (save).  Juan Uribe launched the go-ahead HR in the 8th.  I swear all of his homers mean something.  Edgar Renteria tacked on two more with his own HR.  That was important because Dan Uggla hit his 2nd (solo) HR of the game in the 9th.

Cody Ross added a two-run blast for Florida.

Potential Rockies trade target, Jorge Cantu sat this game out.  The beat writers indicated the team is quite displeased with Cantu's defensive effort lately, and are concerned he's distracted by the trade rumors.

Poor defense and lack of focus actually seems like a good fit for the Rockies these days.  I can see why they would be interested.

Game 3 of this 4 game set takes place tonight.  Alex Sanabia goes for the firsh, the predictably unpredictable Jonathan Sanchez will be San Fran's counter.  I like Florida and their right-handed power to take this one and get back over .500.



Thank God for Arizona.  Always there to make us feel better about the Rockies predicament.

Philadelphia will imrprove their winning streak to seven tonight with Roy Halladay on the mound.


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