Rock Solid Recap: I'm liking this road trip so far

Back-to-back hard fought wins for the Rockies to start this 7-game road trip. Not a darn thing to complain about tonight.

But I shall continue to analyze.

Rockies 3, Reds 2 (boxscore)

Which I will do so now by asking and answering my own questions about this game.

Was Esmil Rogers more efficient?

111 pitches to record 18 outs.

That's not efficient. But make no mistake Rogers battled his tail off to get those outs and left the game in great shape for the bullpen. Credit him for that. Yes, it would be ideal  for Esmil to start racking up quicker outs, but I'll just take the outs for now and hope he continues to move forward and maybe even gains some more confidence in his game.

As a back of the rotation guy, you're not asking him to take a huge step forward. You won't always need him to go 7-8 innings, but it would be nice to know he could on nights the bullpen needs a breather. Honestly though, you can nitpick it, but if you step back and look at it, his last two start have been about the same or better efficiency and productivity wise than what Ubaldo Jimenez was giving you in this spot all season. So hey, that's not bad at all.

Rogers also has the same number of wins this season as Ubaldo: 6.

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Lineup Card: 8-9-11 Rockies @ Reds

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 every night game and some afternoon games.

Link

Yesterday's Recap: The Reds look familair to me

Colorado Rockies (54-62)

1. LF Eric Young
2. CF Dexter Fowler
3. RF Carlos Gonzalez
4. SS Troy Tulowitzki
5. 1B Todd Helton
6. 3B Ty Wigginton
7. 2B Mark Ellis
8. C   Chris Iannetta
9. P    Esmil Rogers

Cincinnati Reds (55-60)

1. LF Dave Sappelt
2. SS Edger Renteria
3. 1B Joey Votto
4. 2B Brandon Phillips
5. RF Jay Bruce
6. CF Drew Stubbs
7. C   Ramon Hernandez
8. 3B Todd Frazier
9. P   Dontrelle Willis

Their lineup gets a lot better with Phillips and Hernandez in there. Makes for a nice challenge for Esmil Rogers. 

Rock Solid Recap: The Reds look familiar to me

If the Rockies are the most disappointing team in baseball, which I fully believe they are, then the Cincinnati Reds are a close second. They took control of the NL Central last season. With a whole season of Aroldis Chapman, a healthy Edinson Volquez, and a pretty solid crop of young starting pitchers coming along, it seemed like they were destined to repeat this season and possibly beyond.

That all sounds familiar. Just change a few names and divisions.

It hasn't happened for them. There have been injuries along the way. Volquez has gone from the ace to constantly shuffling back and forth with AAA Louisville. The young pitchers are still feeling their way. But above all else, and I've seen this several times when watching them, their fundamentals, baserunning, clutching hitting and all around execution are all terrible.

Baseball being baseball strikes again. Every new season is exactly that - a new season. We've learned that the hard way a couple times over the past five years. Reds fans are relearning it for themselves right now.

But you aren't here to read about the Reds and how sad and disappointing they are. And I surely don't mean to take away from...

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Lineup Card: 8-8-11 Rockies @ Reds

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 every night game and some afternoon games.

Link

Sunday Recrap: Chapter 16

Colorado Rockies (53-62)

1. CF Dexter Fowler
2. 2B Mark Ellis
3. RF Carlos Gonzalez
4. SS Troy Tulowitzki
5. 1B Todd Helton
6. LF Seth Smith
7. 3B Ty Wigginton
8. C  Chris Iannetta (Yes, Iannetta)
9. P   Jason Hammel

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Sunday Recrap: Chapter 16

The Colorado Rockies have now gone one entire NFL regular season of Sunday's without a victory. The only other people who know what this feels like is the Detroit Lions. That's bad, because anytime you're compared to the Detroit Lions in terms of futility, you've arguably reached the lowest point in your franchise's history.

This probably isn't really the lowest point in franchise history, but with everything that's happened this season, it's pretty close. Granted, a decent amount of the bad has unfortunately been out of the Rockies control. That stuff you can live with. But a larger amount has been within the Rockies control, and the bottom line is they just haven't been good enough at baseball.

Such was the case again on this Sunday.

Nationals 3, Rockies 2 (boxscore)

This is when you know things are bad. The Rockies went 2-for-11 with RISP. That was actually better than Washington's 1-for-11 with RISP, and you still lose.

As has been the case so often, especially on Sunday, one more clutch hit likely gets the job done.

Nine hits, all singles. That's also problematic.

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