Rock Solid Recap: Road To 100 Hits Dead End

Rockies 7, Diamondbacks 4 (13 innings) (boxscore)

It's over. Our season long regional nightmare is all over.

Five years to the day they defeated the San Diego Padres 9-8 in 13 innings to win the National League Wild Card, the Colorado Rockies won another clincher in 13 innings with the 7-4 win over the Diamondbacks. OK, yeah, so this win was just a little bit less significant in the grand scheme, but it was still meaningful as they officially avoided to century mark in the loss column.

Whew.

RIP: Road to 100.

Winning Players: Chris Nelson & Charlie Blackmon

The Rockies had 13 hits in 13 innings. Seven of those belonged to Chris Nelson & Charlie Blackmon.

I think Nelson deserves top billing because he's the one who delivered to go-ahead RBI single in the 13th. That capped a night where Nelson was seeing the ball very well and had a number of good swings, including a couple drives that had home run distance but ended up just foul. Either of those staying fair would have changed the game a lot sooner.

Then again, it was Blackmon who had four hits, including the single that made it 5-3. That would actually ended up being the winning run, so you could make an argument for either.

It's kinda like the Miguel Cabrera-Mike Trout debate for the AL MVP, only not even close.

Turning Point: Josh Rutledge had a really rough four-strikeout game, but he's also a big reason the Rockies stayed alive. His two-out RBI double (scoring Blackmon) in the 8th tied the game. Tyler Colvin followed with his own RBI double, so things looked pretty good at that moment. Of course that was only temporary.

Drew Pomeranz's Line: 5 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 7 K, 2 HR, 80 pitches (51 strikes)

All things considered during this mostly uninspiring season for Drew Pomeranz, this was a positive note to go out on. Sure, he allowed a couple homers (both solo) and threw in a couple walks, but he stayed on track and never allowed any particular inning to escalate or become a potential disaster. That may not sound like much of achievement to my newer readers, but if you've been reading these recaps all season and looking at the pitching lines, you know how difficult that has been for Pomeranz and this entire staff.

It's a nice ending, but it's really only the beginning as Pomeranz enters this important offseason. Because of this season's results and stunted development, next year almost has to be two steps forward just to get where the Rockies wanted and needed Pomeranz by the end of this season, and maybe three steps forward to reach his potential. I'll settle for one step, as long as it's not another one sideways or backwards.

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Rock Solid Recap: Charlie Blackmon Homers, Helps Rockies Preserve 7th Shutout

Rockies 6, Cubs 0 (boxscore)

Winning Player: Charlie Blackmon

Blackmon had solid day at the plate with his third career home run and another run scored.

Watch Charlie Blackmon's solo homer

He also had a key play in left field where he threw out Joe Mather at third base trying to advance on a flyball, which kept the Rockies 7th shutout intact as the tag was applied before Josh Vitters could touch home. Really a fantastic throw that almost had you wondering if Carlos Gonzalez was out there.

Watch Charlie Blackmon's great throw

Honorable Mentions: The entire Rockies pitching staff.

Drew Pomeranz's Line: 5 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 3 BB, 3 K, 84 pitches (51 strikes)

The opponent has to be taken into consideration, but this is still a pretty solid performance for Pomeranz. Granted, the three walks are a bit high, but to see him work a little deeper and put up nothing but 0's overrides that. And really, any step that isn't directly backwards is a positive for Drew as he wraps up this highly disappointing season.

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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: Offense Disappears As Rockies Find Yet Another Way To Lose

Braves 1, Rockies 0 (boxscore)

What Went Wrong: Thursday afternoon was a replay of Wednesday night, only with the Rockies finding a more creative way to lose.

Yes, they again lost 1-0 on an unearned run, making them the first team since the Kansas City Royals on July 23 & 24 of 1987 to lose back-to-back games without allowing an earned run, and this time the error was Jhoulys Chacin completely whiffing on a simple throw back from Wilin Rosario, allowing Juan Francisco to hustle home from third. 

Watch and cringe:  

 

Offensively, Tim Hudson shut the Rockies out for seven innings, allowing six hits and two walks. Three of those six hits belong to Charlie Blackmon, who also added a fourth in the 9th. Good afternoon for him, but he had no assistance whatsoever.

Turning Point: See, watch and cringe.

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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: Jhoulys Chacin Brilliant In Return From DL

Rockies 6, Mets 2 (boxscore)

Winning Player Jhoulys Chacin: 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 2 K, 73 pitches (51 strikes)

As good a return outing as you can have asked for or expected. Troy Renck pretty much summed it on Twitter. Chacin threw with confidence and swagger, which is something we haven't seen from him since early in 2011. He was in the strike zone consistently. He was efficient. It's the type of outing where he may have pushed to go the distance under different circumstances, but we'll certainly take these results and hope there are more to go this weekend in Chicago. 

Welcome back, Jhoulys.

Congrats on your first win since last Aug. 28.

Bullpen's Line: 3 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K

The Mets scratched out one against Matt Reynolds in his 1/3 of an inning outing, but could get nothing going against Josh Roenicke, Matt Belisle and Rafael Betancourt.

Seriously... how nice is it to finally see the Rockies having opportunities to use Reynolds, Belisle, Roenicke and Betancourt in setup/closer situations?  It's almost like we have a little structure back in our lives.

Also, NO WALKS. From anybody!

Turning Point: The game obviously turned in the Rockies four-run sixth. Up until that point, Colorado was without a single base runner. D.J. LeMahieu and Jonathan Herrera changed that with back-to-back singles leading off the inning. Then came the big play... After Chacin put down his sacrifice bunt, starting pitcher Chris Young fielded it and promptly tossed it halfway down the right field line, which allowed LeMahieu to score and tie the game.

Watch The Mets Botch It All Up

Charlie Blackmon and Dexter Fowler would follow this with RBI singles. Ramon Hernandez then capped the rally with a sacrifice fly. So again, like Monday night, it came down to a few batters in one half inning where the Rockies executed everything correctly and benefitted greatly from the opponent's inability to do the same.

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Spring Training Hits & Misses: Game 14 vs. Chicago

Hits

Jhoulys Chacin

Chacin had another strong outing today, tossing three shutout innings (only 44 pitches). He was scheduled and certainly positioned to go longer, but a "small" blister on his right index finger put an end to his afternoon. He'll get treatment for that and should be fine for his next scheduled outing.

Wilin Rosario

The Rockies top catching prospect locked and unloaded his second monster home run of the week. The first was a 400 foot plus shot off San Diego lefty Alex Hinshaw on Monday. Today's was a two-run blast off former Rockie Rodrigo Lopez. Rosario's raw power is unquestionable, so it's really just a matter of adjusting to better pitching and staying disciplined. It sounds like he's making noticeable improvement in both areas so far.

Jordan Pacheco

Hit the go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth that ended up being the difference. Think he's having a decent spring so far? I'd say so.

Misses

Ben Paulsen sent to minor league camp

It's not so much a miss because Paulsen is leaving camp (we all knew that was going to happen eventually), it's a miss because Paulsen is leaving camp before the manager's kid, Chad Tracy. That kinda sends the message that Tracy is higher on the team's depth chart, and that's a message I'm not comfortable receiving at this point. I guess he has some more time to prove me wrong (losing a popup in the sun today was a bad start), but I'd rather see Paulsen get some more meaningful reps to help prove me right.

You can read the full list of first round cuts over at the Denver Post.

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Spring Training Hits & Misses: Game 4 vs. San Francisco

Hits

Charlie Blackmon

Hey, any time you can take Tim Lincecum out of the yard - spring training, postseason and all times in between - you've had a good day. So that means Blackmon's day was a good day just a couple pitches into the game as he led it off with a solo blast off the Giants ace. He then added a single, a stolen base and a run scored in the second, again off Lincecum, making it an excellent day.

Michael Cuddyer

Jim Tracy wanted to get Cuddyer into the lineup today to get him a look at Lincecum. It didn't take him long to get comfortable as he knocked a two-run triple over the head of right fielder Nate Schierholtz to cap a three-run first. Cuddyer would later add a run scoring single, giving him a three RBI day batting out of the sixth spot.

Jamie Moyer/Rex Brothers

Opposite ends of the age and velocity table, but equally as effective on the mound today. Moyer tossed a pair of scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out one. Brothers followed with his own scoreless frame. Good start for each in active competition.

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Rock Solid Recrap: Rockies dismantled, pantsed and swept by Braves

Braves 6, Rockies 3 (boxscore)

Now see, that's how you take care of business and finish off a sweep. You think the Atlanta Braves cared that the Rockies are short-handed and hurting? No chance. That's a talented, driven, ruthless and scary good baseball team they've put together there. Damn good team.

It's a good lineup. Don't care how much they've struggled to this point, the process of coming together has already begun. They will score runs. The rotation speaks for itself. And the back end of the bullpen is shutdown quality.

But like I said, I'm most impressed with how they took care of business on the field. They took charge of every game, stepped on the Rockies throat and never once let them up. Rockies could learn from that... if they ever get healthy again.

Juan Nicasio

The good and the bad. We've documentated after every start that there's going to be a lot of both. Today was a perfect example. Two good innings, then the wheels just fall off. Learning how to navigate his way through those tough innings is always a difficult hurdle in any pitcher's development. Just look at Ubaldo, Hammel, De La Rosa - all of those guys struggled to get past the killer inning. Once they did, they realized their varying levels of potential.

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Rock Solid Recap: Nothing beats fun at the old ballyard

And finally the Colorado Rockies and their fans got to have a little fun at the expense of the Kansas City Royals.

The Rockies haven't been involved in too many laughers this season. That goes both ways. Just about every day we're sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for that one little thing to go wrong, but praying the Rockies can either overcome it or flat out avoid it. I prefer night's like last night, where the game is essentially over from pitch one to pitch done.

Rockies 9, Royals 0 (boxscore)

Juan Nicasio: The main reason it was over early was this kid. Now, it would be easy to joke that he continued his dominance of the Texas League with this win over Kansas City, but I honestly don't care who he owned. It was all about the confidence and command he had over his entire arsenal. It was damned impressive.

Watch Nicasio deal

I think it was an encouraging glimpse into what Nicasio's future could look like if the secondary stuff becomes more consistent. Either way this was a masterpiece. Just leave it at that and wait patiently to see how he follows it up.

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Rock Solid Recap: No offense to the Detroit Tigers... but

Beating up on them and Jim Leyland was a helluva lot of fun on Friday night.

I admit it, I still haven't forgetton Leyland's quitting on the Rockies after the 1999 season. Forgiven? Sure. I mean, it's his life, so it's not really an unforgivable thing, but certainly not forgotten. That means it will always be a little extra satisfying when the Rockies clean his clock, which is exactly what they did here.

Rockies 13, Tigers 6 (boxscore)

The Rockies rookies led the assault.

Charlie Blackmon: 4-for-4, two runs and two RBI. He's not providing a lot of power, but damn, he's getting the bat on the ball consistently and he's finding himself on base multiple times each game. That's helping the Rockies extend their lineup. For the first two months the offense was basicially limited to 2-5 in the order. Now with Blackmon hitting well at seven, it's opening things up for guys like Ty Wigginton and Chris Iannetta to see better pitches be factors.

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Rock Solid Recap: Something about a lot of singles

One day at a time.

One base at a time.

Alright, so it's probably best to take a faster paced approach to baseball, but it is possible to single an opponent to death when you squeeze them all together. That's what the Rockies did today, collecting twelve singles out of their thirteen hits. The key being that seven of those singles came within eight batters during the 6th inning, leading to five runs.

Rockies 6, Padres 3 (boxscore)

Today's leading singler was that mon again: Charlie Blackmon.

He singled thrice. The first one coming after he spoiled three very tough two strike pitches from Mat Latos. On the 8th pitch of the at-bat, he looped one into short right field that the Padres couldn't handle. Blackmon was then forced at second on a Jose Morales fielder's choice, but his at-bat created the run. Well, his single, and then consecutive singles by Jhoulys Chacin and Carlos Gonzalez.

His second single was No. five out of the seven in the 6th. Stay with me. It drove it one. Ryan Spilborghs followed two singles later with the killer two-run hit that put the game away for Colorado.

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Rock Solid Recap: Nicasio embraces run support in home victory

This something we haven't seen a lot of lately. A solid offensive performance, coupled with an outstanding pitching effort. AND the bullpen made it stand up. That's three phases of the game clicking at once. Plus they stole three more bases. I'm almost overwhelmed with positives.

Rockies 6, Padres 3 (boxscore)

Juan Nicasio: Well hot damn. Nicasio allowed a home run to the first batter of the game. Hit the second batter. Had lousy command early, which led me to believe this was going to be a short night at the office for him. Yet the kid absolutely owned this game for six innings once he got his feet under him.

Nine strikeouts. That ties a season high for Rockies starters. The breaking ball looked like a solid strikeout pitch at times. Great poise and confidence on display. This was a damn good 4th major league start for a 24-year-old.

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Rock Solid Recrap: Home woes continue

Another day.... another disheartening loss... against a beatable opponent... with a pitcher making his big league debut... at Coors Field.

So many reasons to win. So much frustration.

Padres 3, Rockies 1 (boxscore)

This time it was the offense's turn to not hold up their end of the bargain. As I said, Anthony Bass was making his big league debut for San Diego. He could very well go on to have an amazing career, but geez, you'd think an offense with Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton could give the kid a proper welcomes to the bigs. Especially at home, where baseballs were flying all weekend long.

It just didn't happen. I don't know what the answer is. They seemed to be over the hump, but they couldn't sustain any threats or come up with the big knock.

By the way, of the Rockies five total hits, two each belonged to Chris Nelson and Charlie Blackmon. So yes, I think most of us knew these guys couldn't fix the offense, but they have certainly added to it. It's just not enough when the money players have a bad day.

Aaron Cook: Slow start, allowing basehits to the first three batters of the game. He only allowed two hits after that before leaving after the long rain delay in the 6h. I can't remember how long the rain delay was, but I think it was a little over...

Ah yes. Thanks guys. (Alanna, check your watch.)

Unfortunately Cook took the loss despite only allowing two runs. Jason Hammel feels your pain.

Matt Belisle: Having another brilliant season, although much quieter than last year. Definitely the player of the game after throwing 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Very good and very efficient.

Overall: It's getting to be put up or shut up time. This homestand has to finish strong. Having the mentality that a 10-game winning streak in August or September will make everything better is a bad way to live. No guarantee this team has a five-game winning streak in them, let alone eight, ten, eleven, whatever. The turnaround has to start now, and they have to sustain it.

Rock Solid Recap: Rockies 3-4 finally provides some punch

An ideal lineup features your most productive hitters batting third and fourth. On this Wednesday afternoon, the Rockies had the right two guys holding down those positions.

Rockies 5, Padres 3 (boxscore)

Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki combined to go 7-for-8 with a home run (Todd), three doubles (2 Todd), four RBI (3 Troy) and four runs scored (3 Todd).

Watch Todd Helton's home run

The biggest of the seven hits was Tulo's two-run double in the ninth that broke the tie and served as the game-winner. A big, big moment for Tulo, especially considering Heath Bell intentionally passed on Helton to get to him.

Watch Tulo's double

Sometimes a good slap in the face in the best kind of wakeup call.

Once Carlos Gonzalez gets his act together, I would strongly suggest to Jim Tracy that he hit fifth and Helton stays third. I really would. Helton gives you your best at-bats on a nightly basis, and Tulowitzki desperately needs someone dynamic like Gonzalez behind him for protection. That's just me though. Gonzalez still has a ways to go before we can think about that.

Charlie Blackmon: Congratulations on the first ML hit! it was a Todd Helton special on a hard groundball through the right side. And then he barely missed on a three-run homer his second at-bat that probably would have been out in Denver. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he can do on this ten-game homestand.

Watch Blackmon's first hit... and his diving grab

Aaron Cook: I'm sure there was some rust involved, but this looked a lot like most of Cook's outings last season. Didn't get real deep. A lot of traffic. Was always one hit away from disaster. I won't judge him too harshly, but I'll hope for better when Cook faces the same Padres next week in Denver.

Huston Street: Wow. That's all. Wow.

Now let's watch Eric Patterson get picked off... and caught stealing. Thanks for the help!

That concludes a 4-5 road trip through California that could have absolutely buried the Rockies if things went poorly. I feel like they kept their heads safely above water. Granted things could have gone a lot better with a couple hits here and there, and it's nine games off the schedule with no forward progress, but the important thing with how poorly they've been playing is to survive as long as you can and hope things turn around.

Hopefully that starts tomorrow as they host the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw. Yeah, that doesn't look too promising on paper. Now let's see them finally come out, rip up the paper and make an ace look like a #5 for a change.

Spring Training Game 23: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Reds 10, Rockies 3 (boxscore)

Hits

Um...

Well, no one got hurt. And everyone remembered their uniform.

Misses

John Maine

Whatever mystery was left in the Rockies 5th starter derby was gone about three batters into today's game. Maine was brutal... to put it nicely. His velocity was down according to people on scene. His command left a lot to be desired. He committed an error on a throw. Awful.

Sadly, it actually fit right in with several other performances by Rockies starters this week, only they weren't pitching for a job.

Sloppiness

Three more errors defensively. Some more icky base running. They should be playing much sharper baseball at this point. You can understand it when everyone is getting their feet under them and just getting work in. We're less than two weeks from opening day now, it's time to work out the kinks and play solid ball. Hopefully we see the beginning of that tomorrow.

Foul Tips

Franklin Morales/Reds broadcast

First real discouraging outing this spring for the man Reds radio described as one of the most dominant lefties in the game. Eh, well, he should be, and maybe he will be, but come on guys.

The funny thing is, knowing Reds broadcasters (mostly the Brennamans) as well as I do, I know they didn't say that because they didn't do their homework. They know who Morales is and the numbers have to be right there in front of them. They just go out of their way to dress up everything the Reds do. 

Yeah, all home team announcers do that to an extent. The Reds guy take it to levels that are laughable.

Five players reassigned to minor league camp

Among them were Ben Paulsen and Charlie Blackmon, who represented themselves VERY well this spring. All Rockies fans should be impressed and encouraged by both.

Hernan Iribarren had a better than average spring. Didn't run the bases particularly well, but I'm not sure the Rockies view that as a negative.

Pitchers Claudio Vargas and Sean White will likely go to Colorado Springs. White might be one of those relief arms you see come up in September... or he could be released tomorrow.

Spring Training Game 20: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 11, Rangers 10 (boxscore)

Hits

Ian Stewart

The most important thing to take away from tonight's game is how good Ian Stewart looked at the plate and in the field. His timing was good. His movement was good. He didn't look like a guy that missed 2 1/2 weeks. Now hopefully he feels good tomorrow and can build enough stamina and confidence in his knee to be a go on opening day.

The Home Run Parade

Ty Wigginton, Jason Giambi, Mike Jacobs and then the big game-tying job by Cole Garner in the ninth inning. Good to see the baseball exploding off some bats, regardless of how hitter friendly that ballpark appeared to be.

Willy Taveras

Three more hits and three RBI after filling in for an injured Dexter Fowler. Great, great spring for Willy. He's going to make it excruciating on the coaches to not select for the roster, but that's still not likely unless Fowler's quad lingers.

Charlie Blackmon

Blackmon has been impressive all spring, but you really have to value night's like tonight where he battles and succeeds against one of the toughest lefties in baseball in CJ Wilson. He's knocking on the door. Not sure when he'll get an answer, but he's knocking.

Misses

Jason Hammel

Statement: I'm not worried about Jason Hammel. End of statement.

Hammel had little command of all of his pitches, against a really good lineup, in a ballpark where the baseball flies like crazy. When you mix those components together, it often equals disaster. Tonight was indeed a disaster, but every pitcher has one or two every season, it's unavoidable, so getting one of the way now isn't the worst thing in the world.

Repeating statement: I'm not worried about Jason Hammel.

Foul Tips

Eric Young

Young did reach base three times tonight, which is exactly what you want from your lead-off man. Unfortunately, he made an out on the bases twice. One was just a lack focus rounding first base, not knowing what was happening ahead of him. The other was a straight caught stealing.

Young's greatest strength is his speed, but poor instincts and focus are offsetting that and hurting his value to the team. He also made two very poor throws to first base, which won't ease any of those concerned about his defense.

Granted, Young is just getting his feet under him this spring due to his leg injury, but he has to step up soon. I mean really step up. He can't just show he's healthy and be penciled on this roster, he has to prove he's ready to play good, solid baseball. If he doesn't, the Rockies will be left making a big decision.

Spring Training Game 12: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 8, Angels 1 (boxscore)

Hits

Jhoulys Chacin

Chacin backs up De La Rosa's exceptional start from yesterday with a decent one of his own (4 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K). Aside from DLR's hiccup last week and Paulino's disaster, Rockies starters have been on point in the early going. Hopefully we'll be saying the same thing four weeks from now.

Cole Garner/Ben Paulsen/Charlie Blackmon

A combined 5-for-6 with a HR (Paulsen), 4 RBI and 3 runs in limited time for these young guys this afternoon. Again, none of the three will make the opening day roster (barring injuries), but each has taken advantage of their chances to play and impressed on an almost daily basis.

The star of camp, Jordan Pacheco, actually cooled off with a 0-for-3, 1 BB performance. Maybe he was just allowing his buddies to have a little spotlight.

Jose Morales

Morales is quietly having a good spring and is almost a lock to be Chris Iannetta's backup come April 1st. He's not going to have a first half that comes anything close to Miguel Olivo's last season, but it's not far fetched to believe he will outproduce what Yorvit Torrealba gave the Rockies during his stay. I'll take that.

Hernan Iribarren

Iribarren is another guy that's taking advantage of his playing time. He helped break today's game open with an RBI during Colorado's 7-run 8th inning and is hitting a cool. 350 on the spring. The only real problem I've noticed so far with Hernan is his baserunning (picked off), so I guess he fits right in.

Misses

Nothing really stood out as a miss today. I could nitpick a couple things like Seth Smith misjudging a flyball or Iribarren getting picked off again, but we'll save all that for June.

Foul Tips

Dexter Fowler

No hits for Fowler but he did reach base twice via the base on balls. That's another good sign from where I sit.

John Maine

Congratulations to Maine for getting out there and throwing a couple scoreless innings. He dealt with a little traffic, probably wasn't as sharp as he would prefer, but all in all it had to feel good to retire some major league hitters and see 0's on the board.

Spring Training Game 7: Hits, Misses & Foul Tips

Rockies 10, Royals 9 (boxscore)

Hits

Carlos Gonzalez

Pretty good hitter when he's locked... which is apparently all the time. The sound off his bat is second to no one in either league.

Jason Giambi

The ball was making a nice sound off Giambi's bat as well. Two doubles, two RBI. I get the feeling he's going to help the Rockies a lot this season after struggling to gain comfort in his role most of 2010.

Jordan Pacheco

What? Only 1-for-4 today? What's the matter with Jordan?

Kidding. That one hit was a 2-run double. He also stole a base and gunned down the speedy Alcides Escobar on a SB attempt. He's the unquestioned star of camp through the first week of games.

Misses

Esmil Rogers

Felipe Paulino is now the clear favorite for the 5th rotation spot after Esmil's bleh outing today. You can live with the four hits he allowed, but it's the walk and the two hit batters in just three innings that lead to extensive damage, short outings and taxed bullpens.

The good news is he has time to find his release point and get that consistency down, but not as much time as a guy like Chacin or De La Rosa, who already have their roster spots locked up.

Claudio Vargas

Nothing to see here. Triple A roster filler at best.

Greg Smith

Smith had his second uneven performance is as many appearances. He may not even get past the first cut down.

Foul Tips

Franklin Morales

Another scoreless outing for Morales despite a Mike Aviles triple, which is encouraging. Obviously there's a big difference between showing poise now and showing poise in April or August, but it's a start.

Also, the more Rockies fans hate on this kid the more I pull for him. There's no better feeling than silencing critics. That's the feeling I want for Franklin. I also want him to make the Rockies better, so that kinda goes hand-in-hand.

Ben Paulsen/Charlie Blackmon

Paulsen and Blackmon continue to contribute something positive whenever they're afforded the opportunity. That's all you can ask for of these kids. Great attitudes that fit the Rockies mold perfectly.