Rock Solid Recrap: The story is getting old

Make that 12 straight Sunday losses for the Colorado Rockies and 5 straight failures to complete a sweep.

Bad timing? Lack of killer instinct? Lack of talent? All three?

Probably all three.

Nationals 2, Rockies 0 (boxscore)

Five hits for the Colorado Rockies on Sunday. Five singles to be exact. Which means five total bases, and only one runner advanced as far as second base all day. Don't get me wrong, Jordan Zimmerman is one of the great up-and-coming starting pitchers in the National League, but this was a pathetic showing by an underachieving offense.

But it's the same old story, especially on the road. No sense dwelling on it any further or wasting your time with repetitive words.

Three positives

1. Jhoulys Chacin: Whew. He looked healthy, strong and really effective. My biggest concern was the health, because duh, that's where it all starts. And he sure didn't look right the last two starts with that forearm issue. Hopefully that's behind him and he's ready to come out of the gates in the second half dominating and settling for no-decisions instead of stupid undeserved losses.

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Rock Solid Recap: A taste of 2010

That's how good Ubaldo Jimenez was in the Rockies second straight win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday night.

Rockies 2, Nationals 1 (boxscore)

Especially the way it started with U retiring the first 12 Nationals in perfect order. Three of those outs came via the strikeout. Seven came on harmless groundballs. When Ubaldo ran into a little trouble in the 5th, he got another groundball, and a fine double play started by the returning Troy Tulowitzki and turned over beautifully by Mark Ellis.

The only thing that kept Jimenez from challenging for a possible shutout was the boneheaded play in center field by Ryan Spilborghs. Spilly's decision to half dive, half fall down turned an Ian Desmond single into a triple leading off the sixth. The Rockies would trade Desmond's run for an out.

From there, Jimenez finished up strongly.

His line: 8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K

The one walk certainly stands out as a positive. He had great movement again, but he was doing a better job commanding the zone and avoiding hitter's courts. It should also be noted that Jimenez was touching 97 on the gun as late as the seventh. All those concerned about velocity should feel good about that.

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Lineup Card: 7-9-11 Rockies @ Nationals

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 30-60 minutes before first pitch. They should be here waiting for you.

Links

Yesterday's recap: Return of the Rock Solid Recap

Lineups

Colorado Rockies (42-47)

1. CF Ryan Spilborghs
2. 2B Mark Ellis 
3. 1B Todd Helton
4. SS Troy Tulowitzki
5. RF Seth Smith
6. LF Ty Wigginton
7. 3B Ian Stewart
8. C  Chris Iannetta
9. P   Ubaldo Jimenez

Tulowitzki back, Gonzalez back out as his wrist is still pretty sore. He won't play tonight and he's unlikely again for tomorrow. Hopefully the rest will allow him to be healthy when the All-Star break concludes.

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Return of the Rock Solid Recap

Every now and the Rock Solid Recap goes on a vacation. For example, the entire second half of last September, it was all Recrap all the time. But it's always nice when the Recap makes it triumphant return!

Welcome back Recap!

Welcome back Rockies!

Rockies 3, Nationals 2 (boxscore)

Let's get right into the three positives

1. Jason Hammel: A huge, HUGE bounce back effort from Hammel. I admit I was getting a little concerned there might be a lingering back problem or something else that was bothering him. And maybe there was. But this performance helped suppress those worries, and should help to inflate Hammel's confidence. If he'd lost any that is.

Line: 6 1/3 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K

2. Jonathan Herrera: The professional pain in the ass is back to being just that. Herrera reached base three times (two hits, one walk) and was the catalyst in Colorado's three-run fourth inning (the only inning they scored in). He also had a solid night in the field.

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Lineup Card: 7-8-11 Rockies @ Nationals

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 30-60 minutes before first pitch. They should be here waiting for you.

Links

Yesterday's recap: Rockies dismantled, pantsed and swept by Braves

Lineups

Colorado Rockies (41-47)

1. CF Carlos Gonzalez
2. SS Jonathan Herrera
3. 1B Todd Helton
4. LF Ty Wigginton
5. 2B Mark Ellis
6. RF Cole Garner
7. 3B Ian Stewart
8. C   Chris Iannetta
9. P   Jason Hammel

Tonight would be a wonderful night for Jason Hammel to get back on track, don't you think?

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