Back-to-back hard fought wins for the Rockies to start this 7-game road trip. Not a darn thing to complain about tonight.
But I shall continue to analyze.
Rockies 3, Reds 2 (boxscore)
Which I will do so now by asking and answering my own questions about this game.
Was Esmil Rogers more efficient?
111 pitches to record 18 outs.
That's not efficient. But make no mistake Rogers battled his tail off to get those outs and left the game in great shape for the bullpen. Credit him for that. Yes, it would be ideal for Esmil to start racking up quicker outs, but I'll just take the outs for now and hope he continues to move forward and maybe even gains some more confidence in his game.
As a back of the rotation guy, you're not asking him to take a huge step forward. You won't always need him to go 7-8 innings, but it would be nice to know he could on nights the bullpen needs a breather. Honestly though, you can nitpick it, but if you step back and look at it, his last two start have been about the same or better efficiency and productivity wise than what Ubaldo Jimenez was giving you in this spot all season. So hey, that's not bad at all.
Rogers also has the same number of wins this season as Ubaldo: 6.