Saturday, May 26, 2012

Rock Solid Recrap: Another Disappointing Outing For Jeremy Guthrie

Reds 10, Rockies 3 (boxscore)

What Went Wrong: I'm just winging this tonight. There was no TV coverage here in Illinois. There's no chance in hell I'm going to go back and watch it later. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't turn off the audio after the 7th to focus on the 76ers-Celtics game.

Turning Point: The Rockies scored one run on four hits in the 1st. Definitely could have and should have been more.

One batter into the Reds half, their lead was already in jeopardy after Zack Cozart grounded to Jordan Pacheco at third. Pacheco's throw sailed past Helton, and the Reds instantly had a man in scoring position. Jeremy Guthrie did retire Drew Stubbs and Joey Votto without any advancement. But as we so often see with these Rockies, he couldn't finish the inning off.

Brandon Phillips doubled Cozart home. Jay Bruce walked. Chris Denorfia (or Heisey, same thing) hits a three-run homer.

Losing baseball.

Jeremy Guthrie's Line: 5 IP, 6 R (2 ER), 10 H, 1 BB, 5 K, 2 HR, 104 pitches (67 strikes)

The four runs were unearned by rule only. Guthrie absolutely deserves to be credited with all four of them because he all needed to do was make one more quality pitch to pick up his teammate and escape the inning. Couldn't do it. Instead, he let the inning (and ultimately the baseball game) get away with the double, walk and home run. Those were all on him.

Lineup Card: Rockies @ Reds 5-26-12


Lineups

Colorado Rockies (17-27)
  1. Marco Scutaro (2B)
  2. Tyler Colvin (CF)
  3. Carlos Gonzalez (LF)
  4. Troy Tulowitzki (SS)
  5. Todd Helton (1B)
  6. Michael Cuddyer (RF)
  7. Jordan Pacheco (3B)
  8. Wil Nieves (C)
  9. Jeremy Guthrie (P)
Just realized tonight is a national broadcast and I'm stuck with Cubs-Pirates locally. Wonderful choice there, Fox. 

Cincinnati Reds (25-20)
  1. Zack Cozart (SS)
  2. Drew Stubbs (CF)
  3. Joey Votto (1B)
  4. Brandon Phillips (2B)
  5. Jay Bruce (RF)
  6. Chris Heisey (LF)
  7. Miguel Cairo (3B)
  8. Devin Mesoraco (C)
  9. Mike Leake (P)
More Rockies thoughts await you if you follow me on Twitter: @Townie813 & @HeavenHelton

Another Rock Solid Recap? Two in a row?

Rockies 6, Reds 3 (boxscore)

The Rockies streak of impressive play improved to 15 innings on Friday night. Their streak of not being outscored by the opponent now sits at two games. That means we get to pick a winning player!

Winning Player: Todd Helton! 

This is what Todd Helton does once or twice a month. He reminds us that an elite baseball player remains somewhere underneath his beaten up body, and when he's feeling good, he can win you a baseball game at any time all by himself.

Granted, he had help on Friday from Troy Tulowitzki, Christian Friedrich and a damn solid bullpen, but it was Helton's two-run homer that set the tone, and his RBI single that provided the insurance.

This one belongs to The Toddfather.

Turning Point: The Rockies jumped up 3-0 early, then Cincinnati tied it at 3 in the 4th. It's at times like this that the Rockies have lost their focus this season. The quality of at-bats tend to decrease significantly. But that wasn't the case this time around. Rather, the Rockies continued pressuring Reds ace Johnny Cueto (who admittedly wasn't on his game), and quickly regained control of the game.