Rock Solid Recrap: Sundays. Bloody Sundays.

You know the drill by now. Rockies have a chance to wrap up a series sweep. Rockies fall flat on their face in grand fashion. Happens every time.

Sunday may have taken the cake though. What a flat out miserable day in so many different ways. Most of which revovlve around usually dependable pitchers having their worst outings of the season. But there was so much more. So. Much. More.

Royals 16, Rockies 8 (boxscore)

Jason Hammel: I wonder if his back is still bothering him. He really hasn't looked like the same guy since leaving that start 2-3 weeks ago when if stiffened up on him. I'm not trying to make excuses for him, but something is amiss. I don't think he just went sour for no reason, but I could be way off on my speculation.

Either way, his outing was lousy. Hopefully he can bounce back in Washington.

Matt Belisle: This one came out of nowhere. Belisle allowed ONE run the entire month June. I even ranked him as the Rockies No. 1 player in June.He's not likely to repeat in July, but we must not overreact to one awful outing. As long as nothing is physically wrong, he's going to continue being a critical and effective part of the bullpen.

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Rockies Player Rankings: June

Just a reminder of the guidelines...

Everything is taken into consideration -- offense, defense, pitching, clutchness, baserunning, consistency, awareness, intelligence. My personal evaluation and opinions. Stats used only when I need to break a tie in my mind. No BABIP analysis, focus on Ultimate Zone Ratings, or anything like that.

I'm looking back at the month of June here. Any player that stepped on the field in a Rockies uniform during the 30 day month will be ranked somewhere... (sorry, no Mark Ellis) even the players who are no longer in the Rockies organization or currently injured.

Also, coming up during the All-Star break I'll rank every Rockie from the first half of the season.

Let's get to this one...

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Lineup Card: 7-3-11 Rockies vs Royals

If you're looking for Rockies game lineups and you don't feel like searching all over Twitter or waiting for MLB.com to post them, check back to Heaven & Helton about 30-60 minutes before first pitch. They should be here waiting for you.

First things first, congratulations to Troy Tulowitzki on being named to the National League All-Star team. We still have a chance to vote Todd Helton in there as well and you'll get the link to that in a second.

Links

• Yesterday's recap: The honeymoon continues for Mark Ellis
• All-Star Final Vote: Vote Todd!

Lineups

Colorado Rockies (41-42)

1. CF Carlos Gonzalez
2. 2B Mark Ellis
3. 1B Todd Helton
4. SS Troy Tulowitzki
5. RF Seth Smith
6. 3B Ty Wigginton
7. LF Charlie Blackmon
8. C   Matt Pagnozzi
9. P   Jason Hammel

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Rock Solid Recap: The honeymoon continues for Mark Ellis

We're getting a really good look at how dangerous the Colorado Rockies lineup can be with an effecitve hitter slotted into the #2 spot. Of course it's anything but a guarantee that Mark Ellis will continue being that effective hitter, but his first two games give us a lot of hope that he will be a measurable upgrade over those who played before him.

And I'm not just talking about this season. I'm talking about several seasons.

On Saturday, Ellis collected three more hits -- three more doubles to be exact -- making him 6-for-10 with five extra base hits and five runs knocked in through two games as a Rockie. Something tells me he's not going to miss the Oakland Coliseum. Or anything about Oakland for that matter, but especially that graveyard for hitters.

But I think the most important part here is that twice Carlos Gonzalez has been intentionally walked ahead of him, and twice Ellis made the Royals pay with an extra basehit. If Jim Tracy wants to continue hitting Gonzalez lead-off, which I can live with, he absolutely needs a respectable hitter to protect him. Ellis will start earning that respect with a couple more clutch knocks.

Watch Ellis come through

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