Alright, so maybe Alex White hasn't taken the Rocky Mountain region by storm yet, but I'd say Mr. Drew Pomeranz made enough of an impact in his debut to make us forget that for a few days. Pomeranz was absolutely sensational, controlling the game for all 63 of his pitches, and never finding himself in any real legitimate danger.
Rockies 4, Reds 1 (boxscore)
A man of few words, Todd Helton summed up Pomeranz's debut about as well I could in 500.... (via @TroyRenck on Twitter)
"A lot of poise. He had a presence"
Boy did he. In his five innings, Pomeranz walked two, but only allowed two hits. One of which was clean single up the middle, and the other deflecting off Kevin Kouzmanoff's glove. Honestly, when you look at the defensive alignment behind him -- no Tulo, no CarGo, no Helton, no Ellis -- the outing becomes even that more impressive.
And you know what makes it even better? The offense scraped together a couple runs, and Drew Pomeranz get the win!
The whole game was a lot of fun to watch, which is very rare for the 2011 Rockies. And I think we can apply the cliche that it's only going to get better when big #47 is on the hill.
How about this for a tag team. When Pomeranz got in range of his pitch limit in the 5th and had to tag out, it was Jason Hammel who got the call in the 'pen. All Hammel did was pitch the fingal four innings, allowing only a Joey Votto solo home run, to collect his third career save.
Gotta love September baseball.
But you know what Hammel's early success in the bullpen makes me wonder? How different would this season be for Colorado right now had Jason Hammel been sent to the bullpen in March, and Felipe Paulino been given a chance to start. Not that Hammel had done anything at that time to warrant being removed from the rotation, but those are the types of decisions that keep general managers awake at night.
Other notes
Terrific game for Eric Young on the bases. He added three steals, raising his total to 21 in limited big league action. If he could ever earn 600 at-bats and we could ever find a good position for him, it'd be fun to see how steals he could rack up.
Jordan Pacheco had another awesome at-bat with RISP. The kid simply does not give away at-bats, and seems to lock it even better with ducks on the pond. Seriously, guys on this roster could learn from that. And by guys I mean all of them.
Final thought
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