Rock Solid Recap: Back To The Winning Formula

Remember how I broke it down on Friday night?

Rockies 8, Pirates 4

1. Superstars

Four more hits (8 total bases/3 RBI/SB) for Cargo. That good enough?

Another multi-hit game for Tulowitzki + a 2-out RBI + SB. Money.

2. Starting Pitching

Though Esmil Rogers fell short of the statistically defined "quality start," I would still give him the nod on that distinction. Quality, as in, given a lead, he didn't shy away from contact. He made Pittsburgh earn their way in to the run column. When he got himself to the brink of a major jam, he made his pitch to get out of it with very limited damage.

I liked what I saw. I think there's room for him to continue improving, though I think he'll fit the bill as a #5 just fine if his starts all resemble this one.

And hey, he could prove to be a valuable guy sitting around on the bench. He really helped his own cause with two doubles this afternoon. The first one, a 2-out RBI double -- that was followed by a Fowler 2-out RBI double -- in my opinion, was the game clincher.

And don't forget the sac bunt that led directly to a run. That's quality!

3. Defense

Again... we can't punish the entire defense for a Melvin Mora mishap. Today it what the poor footwork routine we saw from him in San Diego.

Okay, fine, there was the errant pick-off throw by Esmil. Two error games won't win very often on the road. Then again, when the home team commits two of their own, plus the poor baserunning, your chances for survival are back to even.

At least Colorado avoided the sloppy, non-error defensive breakdowns we've become accustomed to in key road games.

4 Role Players

Dexter Fowler reached base three times, scored twice, collected two 2-out RBI. You'll take that everyday from the top of the order.

Spilborghs chipped in two hits and some good RF.

Joe Beimel, Matt Belisle and Rafael Betancourt with three shutout innings of relief. Good stuff.

Tomorrow

Rockies can relax in the Big Apple.

Tuesday

It's Ubaldo Jimenez going toe-to-toe with Mike Pelfrey.

Even with the pitching match up overwhelmingly in the Rockies favor, they're still going to have to earn it.

Rock Solid Recrap: My Bad

Kinda. Kinda more Huston Street's bad, but I guess I should take a little flack for seeing the future in this tweet.

Is Donnie Murphy on deck? Pedro Alvarez? Even worse.

Yeah... this situation was shaping up eerily similar to the one we saw in Florida. Back-and-forth. Rockies fight back late, take the lead on an improbable HR, before turning the ball over to Huston Street, who then walks the #4 hitter (attack please!) bringing up the #5 hitter as the winning run.

Visions of Donnie Murphy danced in my head.

Visions of Pedro Alvarez hitting a baseball harder than any I've seen all year (yesterday vs Hammel) danced in my head.

I didn't want to see what I saw in my head, but I did. Then I tweeted it. Then it happened.

*Headdesk*

Pirates 8, Rockies 7

But you know... this is MOSTLY Jim Tracy's bad.

Only Jim could leave his starter in too long in the 6th, and still be flat out of pitchers by the 10th. I would LOL at that if it weren't my favorite team... and that tragic loss hadn't just occurred.

I didn't really see the upside in leaving Jorge De La Rosa in for 113 pitches. I don't care if the Pirates still had a 0 in the run column heading into that 6th inning, De La Rosa was pretty clearly done after a 5th inning that saw him throw 22 pitches (91 for the game) and leave the bases loaded (thanks to a poor Neil Walker AB).

He starts the 6th with a walk. No Jim Tracy.

Gets a flyout. No Jim Tracy.

Walks another. Jorge De La Rosa clearly on fumes at this point. Even glancing towards the dugout in a "I got nothing, coach" type of way. No Jim Tracy.

By now DLR isn't pitching anymore, he's throwing a baseball hoping it accidentally caught a part of the plate, but somehow missed a bat as Bob Walk stated on FS-Pittsburgh.

One found the plate. One also found Chris Snyder's bat. Ball found the fair pole.

Here comes Jim Tracy. 22 pitches too late.

And then here comes Jim Tracy again and again.

Had an anchor tied to his ass for De La Rosa. Now we're changing pitchers every other batter for the next two innings so that by the time Colorado rallied in the 9th, all he had left were a fatigued Matt Belisle and closer Huston Street.

Not that that part actually factored into the decision, but it still leaves a lot to be desired from the managerial standpoint.

Ugh. And to think about how special this night would have been for Todd Helton and Ian Stewart. Those were your two role players that stepped up big time this evening but it just wasn't enough.

Tomorrow

We welcome Esmil Rogers back from AAA and all we really ask of him is 7-8 innings of brilliance in an extremely important game. Not too much, I hope?

We'll get another look at Paul Maholm. He treated the Rockies well last week in Denver. Going to need to hurt his ERA again.

Rock Solid Recap: See! It's Doable.

Winning on the road is never easy, but it doesn't have to be impossible either.

Unless you make it impossible.

Rockies 6, Pirates 3

Tonight we saw the formula to making it possible.

1. Get superstar performances from your superstars. 
2. Get a well pitched game from your starting pitcher. 
3. Play near error free defense. 
4. Get solid contributions from 1-2 role players.

Point-by-point recap

Superstars

Carlos Gonzalez is growing up with each series, each game, each AB, each pitch even. You can just see it happening. The smarter approaches. The less violent swings on the road. The silky smooth reads and reactions on defense.

He's not just a guy with 5 tool ability, he's a top end up player in each category.  And he's only going to get better.

Troy Tulowitzki with his third consecutive three-hit game. I'm not always a big fan of comparisons, but one people like to make with Tulo is Derek Jeter. Mostly because Tulo grew up idolizing him.

Well this stretch is the type of baseball Jeter was famous for in his prime. Stepping up, putting streaks like this together when his team was down. Being a leader and a captain. Only I'll say this... I think Tulo has more raw ability than Derek Jeter even did. Tulo can mix in the crazy power with legit Gold Glove defense.

Starting Pitching

Quality outing from Jason Hammel. Kept his team in the game and was honestly one good pitch away from being brilliant, which is the new MO for Hammel. One pitch separates a good start from a great start, solid from good... right on down the line to his now rare bad to average outings.

That's a far cry from where he was earlier this season, when it was a series of pitches and events that would avalanche on top of him causing irreparable damage. I wouldn't put his improvement in the same category as Ubaldo's, but it is still significant. From a #5 to at least a #3, with the ability to go a little higher.

Defense

It was essentially error free defense. I can't penalize the whole team for one poorly thrown ball by Melvin Mora. Much better defense tonight and much better focus in the field.

Role players

A really good game by Dexter Fowler. You can almost mark it down every time he gets on base, he finds a way to score.

And Clint Barmes steps up with three hits tonight. Those were noteworthy not only because he scored a big run, but also because each time he reached, he helped turn the lineup over. Fowler led off four different innings. Excellent game for Barmy.

That's that. A win on the road. Even with all those things it wasn't easy, but it never will be. You have to earn it. Tonight it was earned.

Tomorrow

Jorge De La Rosa vs Ross Ohlendorf

Earn it again!

Return of the Rock Solid Recap

But first, I have to nitpick...

The handshake line was a little sloppy and out of sync. Need to work on that after all three games in the Cubs series.

Rockies 9, Pirates 3

Pretty basic formula: Great starting pitcher + Timely hitting.

Ubaldo Jimenez

We can back away from the ledge here. While Ubaldo wasn't exactly dominant or as efficient as you'd hope today, I think we would have had to be satisfied with any marginal improvement over the last start in Philadelphia.

This was more than marginal.

He stayed in control of himself. He didn't rattle. His mechanics were solid. Stamina was good. This was a very good first step back to the Ubaldo form we saw the first 2 1/2 months of the season.

He'll get yet another crack at the Giants in his next outing. In two previous outings this season, he's had a complete game shutout and a complete meltdown. I'm betting this one rests somewhere in between, but hopefully closer to the shutout.

Timely Hitting

All it takes is a couple well-timed basehits to give a scuffling offense a little of confidence.

It's not like the scoring chances haven't been coming, they just haven't been accompanied by those timely, confidence building hits. When you don't get those timely hits, you need a lot of home runs (or lucky breaks) to score your runs. Those haven't been coming either.

So those timely hits are essential in being successful. That's why they're called timely hits.

Dexter Fowler had the biggest one.

His bases loaded, 2-out, 2-run double in the second inning got that proverbial monkey off the offense's back. You could just feel the sigh of relief and the building of confidence all at once. Fowler had 3 hits, 2 runs and 2 RBI in the game. His best in a long, long time.

Clint Barmes rode the wave started by Fowler, following immediately with a 2-run single. I know I joked about Clint Barmes hitting second today in the pregame. Credit where it's due, the move worked. Barmes had his best offensive day (2 hits, 3 RBI) in quite some time.

Later in the game, Miguel Olivo also had a 2-out, run scoring single that extended the lead to 6-1. Like Fowler and Barmes, Olivo is another guy that has been struggling of late, so I'm hopeful this is something he can build on as well.

Oh, and I couldn't conclude without mentioning CarGo's home run to left center.  Absolutely gorgeous swing.  When he's focused on driving the ball to the opposite field, he's deadly.  The Rockies will need a deadly Carlos Gonzalez to have any prayer of making any type of run.

Tomorrow

Cubs are in town. It's the battle of the Canadians! Ryan Dempster vs Jeff Francis.

Rock Solid Recrap: For The 8th Day In A Row

Eight losses in a row. Two in a row at home to Pittsburgh... a team that hadn't won two straight road games since May 14th & 15th in Chicago.

Chicago... yeah... the Rockies lost both of their games in Chicago. I remember that. I remember thinking THAT road trip through Chicago, Houston and Kansas City was going to be rock bottom of the season.

Wrong.

Honestly, I kinda wish the Rockies could go back to being as average and underwhelming as they were then, because the team we're seeing now is actually several notches below the they were at that point.

Seriously. Not even joking. This team is awful at baseball.

Pirates 6, Rockies 2

The Aaron Cook/Miguel Olivo combo didn't work out again tonight.

Alright, I give, it doesn't matter who is putting the fingers down for Cookie at this point -- he's missing the target, elevating the sinker, hanging the curve, walking the pitcher, doing just about anything wrong a pitcher can do wrong.

That begs the question... what has better sink right now: Cook's sinker or Cook's trade value?

The pitching wasn't the only problem tonight.

No, no, no, no, no, no... offense.

Well, early offense -- three hits in the first inning, one that struck Pittsburgh's SP Ross Ohlendorf in the head, ending his evening early. Thankfully he's okay, but the moment he exited, so did the Rockies offense.

Sean "f'ing" Gallagher throws three hitless innings.  He walks three, but strikes out four.  Rockies can't score.

Wil Ledezma, out of baseball since 1995 it seems, throws a perfect inning and a third.  Javier Lopez allows a solo HR to Carlos Gonzalez, but DJ Carrasco, Joel Hanrahan, and Octavio Dotel all throw a scoreless inning to finish the Rockies out.

Nary a whimper (or base runner) over the last nine outs.

Let me run this by you...

The two-time defending National League Champions fired their hitting coach last week. Why? Because their offense had completely stagnated for almost two months.

They didn't make any damn excuse for Chase Utley being hurt, or Jimmy Rollins being hurt, or Carlos Ruiz being hurt. They demanded results from their offense. When they didn't get those results, they made the move.

What happened after they fired Milt Thompson? They won eight in a row. That winning streak is still on-going.

Meanwhile, the Rockies offense has been stagnant since Day 1 of the season. Do they have the guts to make a move? Of course not.

Blame injuries? Sure, why not? The national media can't mention the Rockies without mentioning the injuries, so that excuse seems like a pretty convienient one to lean on. Don Baylor, underachieving and apathetic offense... off the hook.  Free passes for all of you.

Ridiculous.

I could probably rant all night about what we're witnessing with this team. I figure I might as well save a little bit of it for later. This thing isn't turning around tomorrow, or Friday. The frustration is only going to keep building. Might as well let it out slowly.

Rock Solid Recrap: Free Fallin'

For those who didn't believe this to be true, believe it now. The Colorado Rockies cannot be fixed by the return of an all-star, a trade, or even home cooked meals. The problems here are much deeper than that.

All you really needed to see to confirm that was the awful baseruning play by Ryan Spilborghs in the 8th inning, making the first out at third base in a 4-2 game. There are no excuses for mistakes like that. None.

Pirates 4, Rockies 2

And now we welcome in Tom Petty to bring you the rest of tonight's recap.  Take it away, Tom.

NL West Recap: What Was Joe Torre Thinking?

Pirates 11, Dodgers 5

A couple things about this game.

-- The Dodgers got what they deserved for naming Vicente Padilla their Opening Day starter. What the hell did Joe Torre expect to happen? When you have a Clayton Kershaw and a Chad Billingsley at your disposal, I don't know why you'd ever pass them for Padilla. Weird decision.

-- The Pirates can really rake. It's far from a complete, all-star filled lineup, but there aren't many holes here. Garrett Jones is a nice anchor in the #3 spot. He has power to all fields, as he proudly displayed in the opener. Obviously Andrew McCutchen is a special type player, and Jeff Clement should be good, too.

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