See, I didn't know Brad Hawpe was the kind of guy who takes being released by the organization he grew up in personally. Now I know. Now the Rockies know. And now the Rockies are probably going to pay for it time and time again.
But this game was about a lot more than just Hawpe coming back to haunt the Rockies. This was about the Rockies shooting themselves in the foot... repeatedly, allowing a 7-1 seventh inning lead to slip away and turn into a 9-7 loss.
That's epic. That can't be done in one at-bat or on one pitch. That takes a collaborative effort from several sources to pull off. And the Rockies pulled it off almost flawlessly.
Padres 9, Rockies 7 (boxscore)
In started when Jhoulys Chacin loaded the bases to start the seventh. Eric Patterson hit one back to Chacin that bounced off his glove. When he finally collected the ball he took an ill-advised glance towards home, and then made an even iller-advised throw to first that sailed over Todd Helton's head. Chacin was charged with two errors on that play that led directly to two runs. It also put two more runners in scoring position that eventually came around to score, narrowing the gap to 7-5.
All things considered, Chacin pitched a solid game today, but that one misplay that turned into a bad decision undid most of it.
What Chacin didn't undo, Rafael Betancourt finished off by throwing an awful inning that included three hits, two runs and one balk. And to make it worse he made it last what felt like three years.
That set the stage for Brad Hawpe to absolutely unload on a 2-2 Huston Street offering in the ninth. It was not a good outing at all for Huston, who needed a little defensive assistance to prevent a lead-off double from scoring. But there was no saving him from Hawpe's second deck blast. Even more frustrating is Street was ahead in the count 0-2 and couldn't finish him off.
Awful baseball.
Offense did well to light up Aaron Harang. It was nice to see that, but no baserunners over the final four innings certainly did not help halt the momentum San Diego was gaining. Last night they were able to keep adding on and kicking San Diego while they were down, today it just didn't happen.
I've seen some frustrating Colorado Rockies losses in my day. This one here is a gut punch that can rival most of them. But it definitely reminded me of one specific loss last season. The final day before the all-star break, where the Rockies imploded against these same San Diego Padres.
A Matt Belisle error on a play very similar to Chacin's opened the door for the Padres, who ended up winning that game by the same 9-7 score. Eerily similar on many levels. Even the weather conditions were about the same, only warmer. And Chacin pitched that day as well... in relief.
1 comments:
Wow! It was too perfect. A rainy mid-afternoon Saturday, my girlfriend was out of town and the Rockies were dominating a divisional foe. Unfortunately, the bullpen had other plans. So it goes.
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