Literally and figuratively.
The Rockies need the All-Star break to start yesterday. Geez. First we heard word of Jhoulys Chacin's forearm tightness. Thankfully that has cleared up, making him available to start tomorrow night. But that still threw quite a wrench into the Rockies plans, forcing a wave of roster moves over the last four days.
Then the Carlos Gonzalez injury yesterday. Now Troy Tulowitzki leaves tonight with the quad tightness. I'm sure he'll be day-to-day, but we're talking about an injury he hasn't been able to completely shake for three years now. It's always lurking, waiting to slow him down at a bad time. That's kinda scary.
What else is scary? Jim Tracy's lineup card tomorrow. I assume we'll see Seth Smith make his first appearance hitting clean up. Unless I missed him hitting clean up before. Can't recall it. But it's not going to very pretty. At all.
Braves 4, Rockies 1 (boxscore)
Ubaldo Jimenez: Made two big mistakes -- the two-run homer to Freddie Freeman and the RBI double by Jason Heyward, which possibly would have been run down by Gonzalez, or caused him to bruise his other wrist.
Ubaldo had some great movement on his pitches, which helped him fan nine Braves in 5 1/3. It also helped extend his pitch count when they were able to adjust and lay off. I don't really know how to categorize this start.
Good? Not really.
Quality? No.
Bad?. No.
Disappointing? No.
Average? Guess so.
In other Ubaldo notes: He had two or three of the better swings against Hanson. How the hell does this happen?
Chris Iannetta: Tommy Hanson really brought out the twitchy, check-swingy version of Iannetta tonight. Lord. But he still found a way to walk!
Rex Brothers: Four batter faced: Two strikeouts. Two walks. Expect a lot of lines like that until he reins in that wildness.
Overall: Another depressing night of Rockies baseball. The offense had no chance against Tommy Hanson, which most offenses don't. But we're looking at a really rough road trip offensively if Tulo and CarGo can't back on the field in the next couple days. That's going to put even more pressure on the pitching, and Jim Tracy. When Jim Tracy feels the pressure, the managerial wheels tend to fall off.
I'm just picturing a disaster. Hopefully the players who are healthy take it upon themselves to nut up here and get the team through the turmoil. I'm looking at Smith, Iannetta, Wigginton, Blackmon. If you're ever going to elevate your game, now is the time.
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