Had a nice dinner with my dad for his birthday last night. Then I get home and my internet signal was a little choppy, so while I was able to catch most of the major moments in the game, I wasn't watching as intently as usual. Feel free to correct me on any thoughts that seem off.
But I don't think anyone can argue with this point: If you allow Jamey Carroll and Aaron Miles to go a combined 8-for-9 with 4 RBI, you most definitely deserve to lose.
Jason Hammel: Had a very average outing going for his 5+ innings before exiting with the sore lower back. Makes you wonder if his back was bothering from the get-go. Whatever the case, the injury doesn't sound like a huge problem right now, so we'll cross our fingers and hope for better next time around.
Bullpen: I think we should just demote all of them. What about you? It's just not tolerable for some of these guys to have a rough outing, much less two bad outings in a row like Matt Reynolds. Demote some of them. Release a couple more. Let's start fresh tomorrow with an all new seven.
If you haven't caught on to the sarcasm, this blog isn't for you. The bullpen had a rough night. It happens. Matt Reynolds, Clayton Mortensen, Matt Lindstrom, and even matt Belisle the night before, these guys have all done wonderfully for the Rockies. To get as worked up as some fans I saw on Twitter (when it was actually working) doesn't make sense.
No, Matt Reynolds doesn't need a minor league stint. No, Matt Lindstrom isn't garbage. Calm it down, folks. There's 98 games to go. Those guys are all going to be quietly great a lot more times than they'll be loudly awful over that timeframe.
Defense: Where do I even start?
First of all, as I mentioned in the Lineup Card, poor Jason Hammel was once again stuck with pretty much the worst feasible defensive alignment Jim Tracy could come up with.
Jason Giambi showed once again he is not a good defender or even an average defender. Any other opinion of the matter will not be acknowledged. Plain and simple.
Eric Young in the outfield needs to never happen again until he spends a whole year in the minors learning it. Sheesh his routes are terrible. And PLEASE don't think I'm taking this out on the player. He's just doing what he's told, and what he's being told is really stupid. Of course it's also the only thing keeping him the big leagues at this point, so it's a really, really tough spot for Young. It's a no-win situation for everybody, which should ultimately lead to him being traded if 2B never opens up.
And yet somehow Young looked a lot better than Matt Kemp did in the outfield. What the heck is his deal?
Oh, and yes, the Jonathan Herrera botch in the 9th inning was quite embarrassing for him and actually pretty costly for the team. Generally he's one of the smarter guys on the team, so his not knowing where to go with the ball in that spot shocked the hell out of me.
I didn't even specifically mention Troy Tulowitzki or Ty Wigginton, the two men who were actually charged with their two errors. That kinda shows how terrible this was overall.
Offense: It's back on track right now. Carlos Gonzalez, Jason Giambi, Troy Tulowitzki, Ty Wigginton and Charlie Blackmon all had multi-hit games. The seven runs they were able to produce should have been enough to extend the winning streak to four, but it wasn't.
Seth Smith: Jim Tracy already thinks Charlie Blackmon is a lot better than you! And apparently he thinks Eric Young is too. I don't necessarily disagree on the former, but come on Tracy, Smith needs to just play every single day.
Ryan Spilborghs: Can't even buy a start against a left-hander these days. That really has to suck.
Sunday afternoon: This is a big one for the Rockies and Ubaldo Jimenez. Despite the loss here, the team is taking more steps forward the backward this week. It would be huge to seal up this series victory over a division rival, as well as keeping Ubaldo's momentum going.
