Rock Solid Recrap: Another Tracy gem

The frustrations keep building and building for the Rockies. The same formula has come together to beat them three days in a row. Terrific starting pitching. Offense fails to deliver the game-changing hit. Bullpen bends and finally breaks in the 9th inning.

Same formula.

Oh, and Jim Tracy over manages the bullpen, makes strange pinch-hitting decisions, and generally looks confused from the 6th inning on.

Yeah, same formula.

Giants 3, Rockies 2 (boxscore)

But let me get this out of the way first.

Clayton Mortensen: I salute you. You were fantastic. Your stuff was excellent, and you brought a nice calm and focus to the mound that we weren't getting from Esmil Rogers in the 5th spot.

I haven't seen a lot of you throughout your professional career, but you strike me as a guy that doesn't get rattled easily, and stays on the attack even when things go wrong behind you or when you're facing a tough situation.I admire the heck out of that. Hope to see a lot more of you going forward.

Now back to your regularly scheduled recrap.

-- 1-for-9 with RISP. Bleh.

-- Career advice for Ian Stewart: Take a step back away from the plate and swing the bat. You're getting beat by the same pitch over and over and it's ridiculous. Adjust. Try to be better. That's all I'm asking. Try.

-- Chris Iannetta can still be so maddening. Still walks a lot. Walks are good. Still strikes out looking a lot with RISP. That's not good. Be that difference maker! You watch tomorrow, Jose Morales won't be afraid to swing with RISP, and I bet he'll drive in another run.

-- 2-2 game, Matt Belisle starts the 7th inning by retiring Aaron Roward and Freddy Sanchez. On cue, here come Jim Tracy. Why? Because he's afraid Belisle can't retire Mike Fontenot.

Burn Belisle, bright in Matt Reynolds. What happens, Fontenot doubles. That was actually fortunate because it allowed them to walk Buster Posey and Reynolds retired Aubrey Huff, but seriously, why can't Belisle finish that inning?

Now you're down two pitchers. It's over managing. You're managing yourself into a position where guess what, the game is on the line and you're using Felipe Paulino again. If's awful.

And then Jim Tracy says this afterwards (via @Troy Renck).

I asked Tracy about the status of Paulino and Morales. He said that they have to pitch in those situations, that's their role.

Yeah, because Tracy manages himself into a corner. He could have at least Reynolds available to him tonight if he simply let Belisle finish his inning. Now we're in the same position we were last year where bad matchups late in the game beat us, and relievers are unavailable a couple times a week because Tracy overuses them.

Matt Lindstrom has a sore arm. It's no wonder. Tracy says it's because he's transitioning from closer, where he never had to warm up so frequently. That may be true to some extent, but I think it's more an adjustment to pitching for Jim Tracy, where everybody warms up every day and pitches to two hitters.

He doesn't learn from his past.

Could I do a better job managing the team? Of course not. But I can tell you if I did it long enough and was afforded the opportunities Jim Tracy has been, I would learn from my mistakes and be better as I went along. Jim Tracy has never improved. He's the same manager he was in LA and then Pittsburgh. Because of that, I believe he's the biggest weakness the Rockies have.

I truly believe that.

And the whole sac bunt with Dexter Fowler thing. That's mostly on Fowler. While I didn't necessarily agree with the bunting there, I understood why he called for the it and I understand that Dexter failed. But it probably would have been smarter to take the bunt off after two strikes.

I don't know why he refused to pinch-hit for Ryan Spilborghs in the 7th with RISP against a righty. He's done that 3-4 times now in Spilborghs starts. It's failed every time. He had the roster flexibility to make it work. Heck, Seth Smith for Spilly straight up. Why not? If you're going to be so meticulous with your bullpen, why not try it once with your pinch-hitters? Might actually win you a game one time.

Felipe Paulino is a failed experiment for Dan O'Dowd. He thought he could take a hard-throwing #5 starter and turn him into a late-inning power reliever and it's just not happening. I honestly think it's time to pull the plug.

But aside from all that I still feel good about the team overall. I'm confident the offense will come around. I'm confident the starting pitching will stay strong and may even improve with Ubaldo and Mortensen coming on. The bullpen can be fixed with a tweak or two. You hope Tracy doesn't run the key guys into the ground. And you hope to have an extended stretch soon where Tracy can sit back and let the players do the work.

Lineup Card: 5-7-11 Rockies @ Giants

If you're looking for Rockies game lineups and you don't feel like searching all over Twitter or waiting for MLB.com to post them, check back to Heaven & Helton about 60-90 minutes before first pitch. They should be here waiting for you.

Links/Notes

• Yesterday's Recrap: A positively maddening loss
• Huston Street will be answering fan questions over at the Denver Post. Would love to be the person who has to read and select the questions he will be asked. 
• Rockies 2010 1st round pick Kyle Parker has no doubts about his choice to play baseball. The Post and Courier (Via Purple Row)
• Esmil Rogers was officially placed on the DL (strained lat muscle) to make room for Clayton Mortensen.

Lineup

Colorado Rockies (18-12)

1. CF Dexter Fowler
2. 2B Alfredo Amezaga
3. LF Carlos Gonzalez
4. SS Troy Tulowitzki
5. 1B Todd Helton
6. 3B Jose Lopez
7. RF Ryan Spilborghs
8. C   Chris Iannetta
9. P   Clayton Mortensen

Jose Lopez hitting 6th. Ryan Spilborghs hitting 7th. Makes sense against a lefty, but they were easy outs against a less good lefty in Joe Saunders on Tuesday. 

San Francisco Giants (16-16)

1. CF Aaron Roward
2. 2B Freddy Sanchez
3. SS Mike Fontenot
4. C  Buster Posey
5. 1B Aubrey Huff
6. LF Pat Burrell 
7. RF Nate Schierholtz
8. 3B Miguel Tejada
9. P   Madison Bumgarner

Madison Bumgarner 2011: (0-5, 4.75)

Madison Bumgarner last two starts: (0-2, 0.69)

Don't let the season totals fool you. Bumgarner is a terrific young pitcher and he's just now heating up. Could be another long night at the office.

Rock Solid Recrap: A positively maddening loss

I sneak the word positively in there because there was a glaring positive in an otherwise painful and maddening loss to the San Francisco Giants.

The postive was Ubaldo Jimenez.

I understand he still has work to do on getting his mechanics in order, and I think we'll all agree we expect more from Jimenez going forward, but just to see him hitting the high 90s on the gun and throwing a devasting splitter was a HUGE step up from where he's been.

It's encouraging. Maybe not at an overwhelming "no doubt Ubaldo is back" level, but at an "I'm pretty sure he's not hurt" comforting type level.

His next start -- especially after throwing 118 pitches in this one -- will be very interesting to evaluate. It definitely feels like it could go either way on a start-to-start basis, but I'm hopeful this game will be the foundation he starts building from.

Giants 4, Rockies 3 (boxscore)

Not so comforting is the way the Rockies let another possible win slip right through their fingers late. Of course when these types of losses occur, people like to point fingers. When they happen on back-to-back nights, people will get downright hysterical. That's kinda where we are now.

A lot of people are angered and frustrated by the offense. Rightfully so.

Others think the bullpen is turning into a weakness before our very eyes. I understand the frustration, but let's try to be realistic. If Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez can each go through extended slumps throughout the course of a season, I think it's normal and acceptable for a reliever to have a hiccup every now and then.

They're human. It's bound to happen. That it happened on back-to-back nights with Huston Street and Rafael Betancourt is just unfortunate timing.

Is Felipe Paulino bad? He has been, yes. But he was honestly the victim of terrible luck on Friday. He made a terrific pitch down and away to Cody Ross that he poked down the line for a double. He owned Aaron Roward, as most pitches do. And that game-winning hit by Freddy Sanchez was another excellent pitch down that was pounded into the ground and somehow found a hole.

Seriously, you can dislike Paulino for a handful of failures this season. but it's difficult for me personally to beat him up over this one.

Now, you can pound the offense all you want. The lack of timely hits. The lack of situational hitting. The lack of good at-bats from the 6th inning on is staggering and disturbing. There's no doubt it has cost the team a chance to win 4-5 more games over the past two weeks.

But again, this poor stretch isn't anything different than what we've seen in previous years. They will come out of it. They will catch fire. And because they've won so many games early, in addtion to every other team in the NL West struggling offensively just as much or more, they will not find themselves digging out of a massive hole.

In fact, they may not be in a hole at all.

It's important to remember that. And it's important to know the past two days don't define who these Rockies are. Maybe the first three weeks didn't either, but don't think for a second these last two days are the Rockies we should expect the next five months.

Lineup Card: 5-6-11 Rockies @ Giants

If you're looking for Rockies game lineups and you don't feel like searching all over Twitter or waiting for MLB.com to post them, check back to Heaven & Helton about 60-90 minutes before first pitch. They should be here waiting for you.

Yesterday's Recrap: Worst. Loss. Ever.

Colorado Rockies (18-11)

1. CF Dexter Fowler 
2. 2B Jonathan Herrera
3. LF Carlos Gonzalez
4. SS Troy Tulowitzki
5. 1B Todd Helton
6. RF Seth Smith
7. 3B Ian Stewart
8. C  Chris Iannetta
9. P   Ubaldo Jimenez

Good to see Jim Tracy holding steady with the lineup he's been featuring the last couple days (minus the day off for Iannetta yesterday). He's wise to allow this lineup to continue going out there and work out the kinks. 

San Francisco Giants (15-16)

1. CF Aaron Roward
2. 2B Freddy Sanchez
3. SS Mike Fontenot
4. C   Buster Posey
5. 1B Aubrey Huff
6. LF Pat Burrell
7. RF Nate Schierholtz
8. 3B Miguel Tejada
9. P   Matt Cain

We simply cannot lose to a team with Mike Fontenot hitting third. No way. Can't do it. 

Rock Solid Recrap: Worst. Loss. Ever.

Or at least since Tuesday. That one sucked. As did both losses to Pittsburgh over the weekend. And the two in Florida.

You know something? The Rockies haven't been playing good baseball for about two weeks now. Hmm. But I guess that's nothing new for this time of year. Only difference is it'll be much easier to withstand this bad stretch after stacking so many wins in the first half of April. We're not used to that. And then when the Rockies catch fire again later this month or June, they will be starting from a much better position and things stand a really good chance of playing out nicely.

Let's face it. Nobody in the NL West is hitting a lick this season, and, barring a blockbuster trade, I don't see any of them improving dramatically enough to scare me. The Rockies just need to plug along, improve in the money situations, and keep pitching and catching the baseball.

Diamondbacks 3, Rockies 2 (11) (boxscore)

But let's dial it back down to this one game we all had the misfortune of witnessing on Thursday night.

As I hinted at above, the Rockies bats didn't come through at all. Another of those 1-for-somethingteen RISP kinda nights. God, how does that happen?

Well, bad night for CarGo. Bad night for Tulowitzki. Decent night for Helton, but his double was poorly timed. Seth Smith ripped one to the gap early to lead off an inning, but followed with a few head-scratching at-bats. The strikeout in the 11th was a total disaster. Ian Stewart fastball right down the middle? I'll just watch, thank you.

Even Jonathan Herrera had a rough night. He struck out with a runner on 3rd and no outs and then failed to get a hit-and-run in play. Herrera having an unproductive night is a strong hint that a bad result awaits you.

But we did have a couple bright spots in Dexter Fowler (3-for-4, triple, two singles, walk) and Jose Morales (1-for-3, 2 RBI, Sac fly). Just wanted to make sure they get recognized.

-- Jason Hammel is on a serious roll right now. Just look at this tweet from Troy Renck if you don't believe me. Yes, he dealt with traffic again, but the key word there is dealt. As in, he had it and then he made it go away. His bad innings now mostly consist of heavy traffic with no damage or limited damage. Good step forward.

I doubt there are any steps left for Hammel to take forward beyond this. If true, that's fine. He's good right where he is.

-- Of course I jinxed Huston Street. That was easy to see coming, but he was bound to blow one sooner or later. That's kinda how baseball goes.

The people who want to hate Street have their justification tonight. I still think you're all out of your minds, but have at it. This is your day. You've been waiting all year for it. It's your moment. Make it bigger than it really is.

-- I don't know where the hell Ian Stewart was going on that tag up play, but I do admit I LOLed and SMH at the same time. It's possible.

Watch Ian get lost

-- Carlos Gonzalez has a large skill set. Included in that skill set is the ability to do things defensively that few can and most wouldn't even dare attempt. Just ask Stephen Drew. Twice.

Watch CarGo's first webgem and second webcam

-- On to San Francisco. I don't know how some fans are going to survive this weekend. I really don't. I pray to the baseball gods for them and I pray for Rockies wins.