Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Rock Solid Recap: Mother Nature Says Six Innings Is Plenty

Rockies 10, Cubs 5 (boxscore)

A win is a win, even when Mother Nature shortens the game to six innings and especially when you're hoping like heck your favorite team avoids its first 100-loss season.

The good news is this win will increase the Rockies chances of avoiding that slightly. The bad news is they still have work to do over these next eight games to make sure they don't lose six of them.

It's coming down to the wire, folks. Sit tight.

Winning Player: D.J. LeMahieu 3-for-3, home run shy of the cycle, two runs, one RBI

The Rockies obviously had a lot of offense in a short period of time, but LeMahieu really led the attack with his three hits against his former team. The biggest coming in the 4th when he doubled home a run ahead of Josh Rutledge's two-run double that gave Colorado the lead. Another former Cub, Tyler Colvin, contributed two hits himself, including a two-run triple in the 3rd that cut Chicago's lead to 4-1. Also delivering were Chris Nelson (three hits, two runs), Matt Bride (big three-run 5th inning blast) and Wilin Rosario (two hits, HR #27).

In total Colorado had 15 hits and 27 total bases in the six completed innings. Not bad at all.

Turning Point: This game turned the second Theo Epstein traded Colvin and LeMahieu to the Rockies for Ian Stewart and Casey Weathers. It remains Dan O'Dowd's one shining moment over the past 12 months.

Jorge De La Rosa's Line: 3 IP, 4 R (2 ER), 5 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 HR, 67 pitches (45 strikes)

The two unearned runs came after Josh Rutledge's 1st inning overthrow that landed somewhere in Oklahoma. I mean he overshot Jordan Pacheco at first base by at least 40 feet. Perhaps the wet baseball played a factor in that. Perhaps it didn't. I don't know. I just know it was the only bad throw in the game and the conditions got much worse as it went along.

As for De La Rosa... he left his offspeed pitches up and the Cubs made him pay with a couple home runs and some other well struck balls. Not sure if there was a grip issue in play here too or if he's just not quite comfortable yet, but there was several baseballs that ended up on a tee and were punished.

That's the baseball performance side of it. Hopefully he feels good tomorrow and the health side continues to improve.

Highlight of the Night: Matt McBride! Don't you dare call him Martina!


What's Next: Another riveting Rockies-Cubs comes your way Wednesday night at 6:40. Drew Pomeranz (1-9, 5.30) vs.Jason Berken (0-1, 3.27) will be your starters. They will be followed by a ton of relievers.

Final Thoughts: The Rockies starting rotation is making all kinds of history and setting all kinds of dubious records this season. As Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times tells us, that will also include the fewest innings pitched a team's leader in the past 100+ years.


Yes, Jeff Francis leads the team with 104 innings. Meanwhile, reliever Josh Roenicke has 86.2 innings pitched, which is a ridiculous workload. Also, Adam Ottavino has 76 out of the bullpen and he wasn't even called up until May 6 and then spent another two weeks in the minors.

More Rockies thoughts await you if you follow me on Twitter: @Townie813 & @HeavenHelton

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