Ubaldo Jimenez is stuck on 17 wins...for all eternity.
As I figured, the Rockies needed two big hits to win tonight's baseball game.
They only got one.
Who by? You know who...
(highlight)
Ubaldo Jimenez was as untouchable as we'd seen him at any point all season for the first four innings. Aside from that CarGo HR, so was Tim Lincecum. In fact, both were so good, the first 4 1/2 innings of the game were completed in exactly one hour.
27 outs = 60 minutes. Damn.
The Giants then touched Ubaldo for one in the 5th on a pair of singles and a walk. He would shut them down again in the 6th and 7th, before walking Mike Fontenot leading off the 8th. That's never good. Pinch-runner Darren Ford (MLB Debut), would be sacrificed to second by Lincecum, took third on a wild pitch, and scored the game-winning run on an
Olivo throwing error.
You know me by now, I never point to one play and say THAT decided the game. It's baseball. There is always more to the result than one play. That holds true again tonight.
The offense was awful... again. Well it's Tim Lincecum, so big deal, right? Tim Lincecum has been brutalized by every offense he's faced (home or road) in the last month. No exceptions. He has been dreadful... until tonight.
Go figure.
A lot of people before the game questioned why Miguel Olivo started all three games of the series over Chris Iannetta. Count me among those. Troy Renck explained it as a comfort situation between Olivo and Ubaldo. I don't think Ubaldo cares who's back there, just put the best player on the field.
For the first three months of the season, the best player was Miguel Olivo. It's not anymore. Hasn't been since the all-star break. Why Jim Tracy refuses to acknowledge that I don't understand, but I really don't understand much that goes through his mind.
Hindsight wasn't 20-20 on that one play. Foresight saw it all very clearly. People that like to defend Jim Tracy (there seem to be plenty) are entitled to do so (I do when warranted), but that's not really a conversation I'm interested in having at this point. I've seen what I need to see. I've consulted enough people from Pittsburgh and LA. I'm comfortable with my assessment of Jim Tracy as a non-instinctual and downright poor manager.
Nice guy. Not getting the most of his team.
Tracy is a big reason for my optimism reaching an almost non-existent level. The Rockies lack of clutch hitting is another. The third reason weighs a lot more than the first two put together, and that is the respect I have for the teams they are chasing.
Listen, the Padres are down right now. Are they going to stay down? They could, but I'm not very optimistic they will be poor enough to allow Colorado to catch them. Same can be said for Philadelphia. They are healthy now. They have a 5-1 road trip (something we can't even dream of) going. They are experienced.
If those two teams do what I expect, it really won't matter what Colorado does, or even what San Francisco or St. Louis does.
Hope to the Baseball Gods I'm wrong, but I'm not going to wave pom-poms and write things I don't believe to be true. Sorry. There are other sites out there if that's what you're looking for.
Tomorrow
Make-up day with Philadelphia.--
Joe Blanton vs Jhoulys Chacin.
That's a really nice test for Jhoulys. Not that I need to see much more to be convinced he's a special talent.
