Rock Solid Recrap: The Rockies Scored A Run!

Dodgers 7, Rockies 1 (boxscore)

What Went Right: The Rockies scored a run in the 4th inning, which snapped a 26-inning scoreless streak! Thanks, Andrew Brown!

Watch Andrew Brown's home run 

What Went Wrong: Well, as you can imagine, only scoring one run in an entire series is a recipe for being swept. So yeah, the Rockies were swept. They were pretty much unwatchable games the whole weekend. And the road to 100 continues with three games left to go. Buckle up.

Turning Point: The Rockies scored their run to take a 1-0 lead. Then the Dodgers scored four runs in the bottom half to take command of the game. Those four runs came on two-run homers from Matt Kemp and the legendary Luis Cruz.

Jorge De La Rosa's Line: 4 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 3 K, 2 HR, 67 pitches (46 strikes)

Four innings and done. Four innings and done. Four innings and done. These pitching lines ALL look the same, though it's always good to see De La Rosa avoiding the walks. That's a small positive that does stand out here. As does his good health to end the year.

Bullpen's Line: 4 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 5 K

Rob Scahill was touched up for a run on three hits in the 5th. That's the first run he's allowed this season. Alex White then continued to struggle in the relief role by allowing two runs on three hits and two walks. The only clean reliever was Carlos Torres, who struck out two in the 8th.

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Rock Solid September Recap: These Are Rare

Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 2 (boxscore)

Since starting this blog in 2010, the Colorado Rockies record in games from Sept. 15 on is 9-33. That's including Monday's win over Arizona, which broke a nine-game losing streak.

That bad. That real bad.

But Monday was good... so let's talk why they finally won one.

Winning Player: Andrew Brown

Was leaning towards Tyler Chatwood here but Andrew Brown's late home run changed my mind. It was a solo shot in the 8th, but that insurance run was a big one to get for Rafael Betancourt. Brown also had a double earlier in the game and a run-scoring groundout. Productive night all around offensively, and the adventurous catch out in right field was a highlight too.

Watch Andrew Brown's opposite field homer

Watch Andrew Brown's nice catch

Honorable Mentions: Chatwood (more shortly), the bullpen (more shortly), along with Charlie Blackmon and Tyler Colvin who each contributed two hits.

Turning Point: After Arizona scored two in the 4th to take a 2-1 lead, the Rockies battled right back with two of their own in the bottom half (Brown's RBI and a D.J. LeMahieu RBI single). Chatwood then put up a big 0 in the 5th to stabilize things, which allowed the bullpen to bring it home.

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Rock Solid Recrap: Rockies Swept In De La Rosa's Return

Giants 9, Rockies 2 (boxscore)

What Went Wrong: We always go into these west coast series (especially in San Francisco) half-jokingly and half-seriously expecting the Rockies to get swept, but this wasn't even close or competitive on any level. What a lousy, embarrassing series that saw the Rockies outscored 24-7 over the four games.

But perhaps the worst thing we saw or heard today were these pregame comments from manager Jim Tracy.

#Rockies Jim Tracy: "Let's be honest, I've been managing a rookie ballclub, a club loaded w/rookies, for the better part of over 3 months."
— Janie McCauley (@JanieMcCAP) September 20, 2012

I understand the comments likely didn't come in the context of 'can you explain why your team is limping to the finish line again', but come on, I'm tired of the excuse-making and bus-tossing from Mr. Clownshoes. It's old, it's tiresome, and it just shows again that he's not willing to accept responsibility for his own short-comings, of which they are many.

Were the 2010 and 2011 teams loaded with rookies too? Why did those teams completely mail it in in September? The way this team finishes (or doesn't finish) really has little to do with experience, but at some point has to begin reflecting on a manager that can never keep his team focused for 162 games, and also consistently puts his team in a position to fail. That includes over-managing and running his relievers into the ground setting them up for a brutal finish.

I'm so, so, so over this guy as the Rockies manager. Play the hand your dealt and make the team better. But this guy just isn't capable of doing either.

Turning Point: The Giants scored six runs with two outs in the 4th. The first of those runs scored on a wild pitch, which is maddening enough. Then came the walk to Angel Pagan. Then came the RBI single from Marco Scutaro. Then came the Pablo Sandoval three-run homer (off Edgmer Escalona) followed by Buster Posey's home run (off Edgmer Escalona).

What a fitting disaster inning for such a disaster series (season).

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Rock Solid Recrap: Giants 2, Rockies 1. Just Like Always.

Giants 2, Rockies 1 (boxscore)

What Went Wrong: One day after allowing 12 runs to the San Diego Padres at Petco Park and only losing by one run, the Rockies hold the mighty San Francisco Giants to two runs... and again lose by one run.

Bet nobody saw that coming.

And by nobody I mean everybody.

Turning Points: What makes a loss like this one all the more frustrating though is Madison Bumgarner walking five batters in six innings and the Rockies not making him pay for it.

• Dexter Fowlers starts the game with a walk... and then he's caught stealing. 

• Chris Nelson leads off the 2nd with a walk. Andrew Brown follows with a single. But that rally dies on a D.J. LeMahieu double play. 

• Fowler and Josh Rutledge walk with one out in the 4th. Jordan Pacheco and Wilin Rosario fail to drive them in.

• Andrew Brown walks in the 6th... caught stealing (picked off). 

Turning any single one of those walks into a run would have changed the entire outlook. Instead, Bumgarner gets off the hook repeatedly and the Rockies get absolutely nothing going against San Francisco's tough bullpen. Same result we've seen seemingly 1,000 times over the past few seasons against those guys.

Jhoulys Chacin's Line: 5 IP, 1 ER. 5 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 80 pitches (50 strikes)

Solid outing that very likely would have stretched out to an excellent outing with a couple more innings of work. But I'm just happy to see Jhoulys throwing this well and looking healthy because that's all that truly matters right now.

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Rock Solid Recrap: A True Jim Tracy Classic

Phillies 3, Rockies 2 (boxscore)

What Went Wrong: Oh man, that was a fun one, wasn't it?

No?

The offense, bullpen and Jim Tracy ruined your night?

Yeah, I understand. They probably would have ruined mine too if I wasn't too busy watching the Pittsburgh Pirates commit a ridiculous seven errors against the Cubs. But you don't care about that one. You want to read about the Rockies offense snapping its 19-inning scoreless streak with a two-run first... and then starting a brand new 8-inning streak by not scoring the rest of the game.

Or better yet, you want to read about the Rockies overworked bullpen losing its 20-inning scoreless streak thanks in part to Carlos Torres allowing a pair of 7th singles, and thanks in part to, in my opinion, unnecessary tinkering by Jim Tracy.

With expanded rosters and extra relievers at his disposal, this is the time of year where Jim really gets to be himself. I'll let you decide if that's a good thing or not overall, but he probably would have been better served to let Torres work out of his own jam (he needed one out), as he has done many times in the piggyback role, rather than going to Matt Reynolds against Chase Utley. The result of that plate appearance was a walk, which is better than a home run I guess, but Tracy was again forced to make a change to Josh Roenicke as the inning continued,

Charlie Manuel countered that change by pinch-hitting Laynce Nix for Ty Wigginton. Bam, Nix drops a two-run double and it's tied at 2.

Now obviously I can't guarantee you things would have gone better had Torres remained in the game. But I do know that two innings later the Rockies were forced to use Will Harris in the 9th (since Tracy likes to save his closer for the save chance on the road), and predictably bad results materialized. I just didn't like any of it (including the awful failed hit-and-run with pinch-runner Andrew Brown and D.J. LeMahieu hitting in the 9th) and I don't care if it sounds like second-guessing.

PS: We need to get Nate Schierholtz out of the National League. Now!

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Rock Solid Recrap: Rockies Close Surprisingly Successful August With Loss

Padres 5, Rockies 4 (boxscore) 

What Went Wrong: Not a lot, really. I felt like both teams played a solid and watchable game, which is not often the case from 4th and 5th place teams on the final day of August. The Padres just played a little bit better, as they have been overall over the past month, and eeked out the win.

Turning Point: Again, a pretty straight forward game that was well played but didn't have a lot of eb and flow. San Diego jumped out 3-0 in the first three innings thanks to a Carlos Quentin solo homer and RBIs from Logan Forsythe and Chase Headley. The Rockies chipped away, mostly with solo homers of their own (Jordan Pacheco, Wilin Rosario and Andrew Brown) but San Diego stayed at least one step ahead until the 27th out.

Alex White's Line: 3 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 2 K, 1 HR, 76 pitches (49 strikes)

White snapped his string of four inning starts at five, so that was different. Unfortunately, he's only gone past the magical four inning mark one time in his last 10 starts, so that's pretty bad. I guess that's why the Rockies see him in the hybrid role next season. Personally, I still see him as a third or fourth starter on a major league team. If the Rockies ever go back to being one of those, he could still be useful.

Bullpen's Line: 5 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 2 K

I hope they all enjoyed their day off. They only have one more (Sept. 13) until the end of the season.

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Rock Solid Recap: Obviously The Dodgers Need More Help

That, or the Rockies are inexplicably locked in right now or the Dodgers have terrible timing. These first two games have not even been close.

Rockies 8, Dodgers 4 (boxscore)

Winning Player: Wilin Rosario (3-for-4, 22nd home run., three RBI)

He's officially no longer a rookie hitter. He's a professional hitter and he's getting better all the time. Exciting!

Watch Rosario unload in the 3rd

Andrew Brown also contributed three hits for the Rockies, which establishes a new career-high for him. Josh Rutledge, Jordan Pacheco and Charlie Blackmon each had two hits in the attack.

Turning Point: The Rockies jumped out 4-0 and never looked back in this game. However, the Dodgers did have one opportunity in the 4th where they loaded the bases with no outs against Tyler Chatwood. Chatwood responded by getting a double play ball off the bat of Adam Kennedy. Then, after an intentional walk to A.J. Ellis, Chatwood blew away Chris Capuano to kill the rally. That's how you prevent a turning point!

Tyler Chatwood's Line: 5 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 4 K, 80 pitches (51 strikes)

Chatwood worked in the strike zone frequently and again found success because of it. His work in the Kennedy at-bat mentioned above was especially impressive, and the young righty appears to be getting more comfortable dealing with traffic (Miami start aside) and confident in his ability to pitch around it. I remain convinced he'll be a solid contributor in 2013.

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Rock Solid Recap: Rockies Put Rare Resilience On Display

Rockies 4, Cubs 3 (boxscore)

I'm not used to this from the 2012 Colorado Rockies. They lost a game they absolutely should have won on Friday. Then they fell behind on Saturday 3-0, which is often times a sign the game is about to get ugly (especially away from Coors Field), but the Rockies bullpen held things in check, the defense held strong, and the bats provided just enough timely hits to complete the comeback.

Dare I say, they looked like winners.

Winning Players: The Bullpen... again. 5 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 4 K

The win goes to Carlos Torres, who pitched  2 1/3 scoreless at the piggyback reliever. Rex Brothers added a strong 1 1/3 and now has a scoreless streak of 7 1/3 innings over five appearances. Will Harris, who has served in the setup lately when Matt Belisle needs a day off, retired the only batter he faced to end the 8th. Rafael Betancourt was flawless in the 9th to earn his 26th save. Brilliance abounds in the bullpen right now.

Turning Point: Two big moments stand out for me.

The first, Josh Rutledge's pinch-hit, two-run homer in the 5th that got Colorado on the scoreboard and cut the deficit to 3-2.

Watch Josh Rutledge go yard

The second came after the Rockies grabbed the lead in the 7th. The Cubs were putting together a little rally with runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs. For some unknown reason, manager Dale Sveum elected to put the double steal on at that point, and Wilin Rosario put the fire out with a strong throw to cut down the trail runner Joe Mather.

Watch Wilin Rosario kill a rally

Huge play. And what makes it more impressive is that he dug out a ball in the dirt and still had the ability to make a good throw, and also had the presence of mind to throw to the correct spot. Very encouraging stuff from Rosario, who seems to be gaining confidence by the day behind the plate.

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Rock Solid Recrap: Officially Running Out Of Original Thoughts

Pirates 9, Rockies 6 (boxscore)

What Went Wrong: The Rockies jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one inning (thanks to home runs from Dexter Fowler and Carlos Gonzalez) and a 5-1 lead after two. That should be good news. However, the Rockies trailed 6-5 after three innings. And then they trailed 9-6 after five.

I got five words for you: Jeremy Guthrie and Jim Tracy.

Jeremy Guthrie's Line: 2 2/3 IP, 6 R (4 ER) 6 BB, 1 K, 2 HR, 68 pitches (46 strikes)

A Jordan Pacheco error didn't help matters (unless your main concern is Guthrie's ERA), but the Pedro Alvarez solo home run and the Garrett Jones three-run jack had already taken place, so it's not like the error  began the unraveling. It's just a continuation of a season long unraveling for Guthrie that shows no signs of correcting itself.

Matt Reynolds' Line: 1 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 4 K, 2 HR, 29 pitches (20 strikes)

I understand what Matt Reynolds role is. He understands it as well. I just don't know that is suits him very well or that you should try squeezing a third inning out of him unless it's a desperation situation. Maybe today qualifies, I don't know, but he did well to escape the 3rd inning. He was fantastic in the 4th. And then that 5th inning comes around and he just didn't have much left it seemed.

I know the pitch count was good, and I know he's thrown multiple innings before, but I think it has to be different warming up, coming into the middle of an inning, and then being asked to warm up, throw another inning, warm up again, throw another inning. That's why we've often seen Tracy use a reliever simply to finish an inning and then he goes to the piggyback/bridge guy to start the next clean inning. I think not going that route proved costly today.

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Spring Training Hits & Misses: Game 18 vs. Los Angeles

Hits

Juan Nicasio

Aside from the rugged third inning where he dealt with traffic and was ultimately victimized by a good swing from a professional hitter — Howie Kendrick's three-run homer — Nicasio was excellent against a relentless, World Series contending Angels lineup this afternoon. And what I liked more than anything was the way Nicasio finished it. After allowing the home run, Nicasio closed it down with back-to-back 1-2-3 innings, and punctuated it with an overpowering strikeout of Albert Pujols.

Honestly, the strike three pitch was so good it gave me chills.

Andrew Brown

I knew little about Brown coming into camp, but I've learned recently that he hits right-handed and he's pretty strong. After an impressive game on Saturday that included a home run and double, Brown backed it up with an opposite field blast this afternoon. He's looking like solid AAA insurance.

Misses

Top of the order

Dexter Fowler and Marco Scutaro combined to go 1-for-6 today and are hitting .080 and .130 on the spring respectively. Am I worried? Well, I'd lying if I said I wasn't a little worried about Fowler. This is a big year for him, and for all the stuff we read about how hard he worked this offseason, it hasn't paid off for him just yet. I'll be patient for another week or so, but you have to wonder how patient the Rockies will ultimately be. Charlie Blackmon and Tyler Colvin will give them options if things don't eventually turn around.

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Spring Training Hits & Misses: Game 16 vs. Los Angeles

Hits

The Home Run Trio

The Rockies feel like they have quality depth in their outfield, and some of that depth was on display today as three outfielders who more than likely won't open the season with the big league club were able to connect for a home run.

The first came from 27-year-old Andrew Brown, who parked a Ryan Tucker offering in the sixth. He also doubled on the afternoon and dropped a looping flyout where he called off Troy Tulowitzki and couldn't finish the play. Next time he'll know better and just let the all-star make the play. Anyway, Brown is the longest shot of the three to ever play with the Rockies, but he looks like he'll be good organizational depth and a better than average insurance policy if injuries begin piling up, especially for a team is short on right-handed outfielders.

The second came from Tyler Colvin, who I'm really, really pulling for to make an impact with the Rockies this season. He would need a couple breaks to make the team right off the bat. And quite honestly, I don't want to see anyone going down to make room for him, but I really like his raw power and his ability to play all three outfield spots and first base. The Rockies will too.

Finally, there was the biggest home run of the game -- a walk-off shot from Tim Wheeler in the ninth. As we know, Wheeler broke out in a big way last season at AA Tulsa and really raised his stock around baseball. Whether or not the Rockies ultimately have a place for him will be an interesting question for a few months down the road, but I think he's going to help the Rockies out one way or another (in Denver or in a trade).

Jeremy Guthrie

He walked his first two batters of the spring today, but aside from that he was his usual solid, top-of-the-rotation self. Keep penciling him in for around 200 innings on the pitching side.

On the offensive side, Guthrie contributed to his own cause with an RBI groundout. A really nice piece of hitting for a guy who's done little of it in his big league. But it's not really a surprise. Guthrie is a good athlete and he has a lot of pride, so while he'll be overmatched more times than not, it won't be for the lack of effort. He's not a guy that will simply mail those at-bats in during the season.

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