May I Have Your Attention Please?
The typical scenario for a low payroll team to make the playoffs is to keep a decent record going until the trade deadline and then rattle off 20 wins in 30 games (Basically you need to fly under the radar). After the Rockies clean the clocks of the “Best Team in Baseball” and then sweep “America’s Team”, that plan’s shot. We have just acquired the utmost attention of the entire league, and especially the division. This produces some good things and some bad things. Good things: The record (of course), the confidence, and the other clubs are scared of us. Bad things: Now the other clubs will scout us harder, and show some serious arrogance. We are about to go on a 10 game road trip, tomorrow, and we don’t get a day off for 13 days. The Rockies need to relax and play the same baseball they played this month. If they get cocky, they will slide back down. Not be a doomsayer, it just easy to feel like one big series is bigger than it is. I’m just trying to keep this season in perspective. This was a big series though, and the Rockies played awesome.
Game 1:
Rockies 3, Yankees 1
When Josh Fogg gets into a rhythm, he’s hard to hit. 7 Innings, 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk. 5 base runners in 7 innings is an awesome thing at Coors field. It wasn’t that easy though. The only run came in the 2nd. No one out, runners on second and third, Hideki hit a 3-1 fastball on the ground to Tulo. The ball was moving to slowly to get A-Rod running in from third base of Posada running to third base, so Tulo wisely goes to first for the good out. Cano up next, and he hit a first pitch fastball back to Tulo. This time Tulo looked Posada back to the bag and took another easy out at first. Fogg struck out up the next batter, Nieves, with a 2-2 high fastball. I’ve said it before; Fogg is a much better pitcher in the upper half of the strike zone. The next inning, Fogg hung a curve and Jeter double down the left field line (fortunately Holiday accounted for the Coors field foul line phenomenon so Jeter’s double wasn’t a triple). Next batter: Fogg gets up on Abreu 0-2 and walks him on four straight pitches. I shook my head in disgust. Then came the best hitter in baseball: A-Rod. Here’s the at-bat: Fastball-called strike, fastball-ball inside (a pitch I thought looked good), fastball-called strike (awfully close location to the ball called before it), slider-low and inside but A-Rod swung anyway. K. After that, the Yanks never bothered Fogg again. He even Ked A-Rod again with a full count curve ball in the 6th. That one was pretty, the ball dropped 7 inches. Wicked pitch. (Note: the at bat featured two more balls I thought were strikes). Fogg also posted two 7 pitch innings on the day. The bullpen almost gave it away. Corpas loaded the bases with two outs in the 8th, then left Hawkins to deal with Posada (I place a question mark next to Hawkins name in my notebook and wrote stupid Hurdle next to it). Hawkins pitch selection though was perfect: Fastball-ball, fastball-strike, fastball-strike, curveball-ball to get to 2-2. In this situation most pitchers go curveball or slider because they have a ball to spend. Hawkins when fastball-low, and Posada hit into a fielder’s choice, inning over. If that scare wasn’t enough, the unshakable Fuentes had trouble too. Lead off hitter Hideki took a lazily thrown slider to the wall in right for a double. Tying run at the plate now, one pitch can tie the game; Cano grounds out on a first pitch fastball and move Hideki over. Fuentes doesn’t disappoint though, he Ked the next two. The last pitch of the game was not a lazily thrown slider.
The Rocks won this game with one thing, Speed. In the 3rd, leadoff hitter Taveras bunted aboard and “stole” second 3 pitches later (he was out in the replay). With two outs, Helton walked to keep the inning alive, bringing up Atkins. Atkins got ahead in the count, and when Mussina was forced to throw a fastball Atkins slapped into short center, scoring Taveras from second. Willie’s speed beat Mussina’s arm to first, Nieves’ arm to second, and Cabrera’s arm to home. In the 5th, one out, no one on, Kaz hits to left, one pitch later steals second, one pitch later Holiday hits to short right and Kaz scores from second. In the words of Irv Brown: “Speed never has an off day”. In the 6th, two outs, bases empty, Torrealba hit a first pitch fastball over the “390 feet” in left center. Yankees pitching had its moments though. Mussina struck out Fogg with 3 pitches in the 6th (killer slider) and Vicanno struck out Kaz with 3 pitches in the 7th (bad curve, would have been ball one, Kaz shouldn’t have swung). The Yanks Ked 7, posted 1 double play and stranded 9. But good pitching with good hitting beats great pitching with no hitting.
Game 2:
Rockies 6, Yankees 1
The average margin of victory in baseball is a little less than 3 runs, so a 5 run victory is a pretty dominant day. It wasn’t even that close. Francis smoked ‘em. 9 Ks, 11 ground ball outs (featuring 1 double play, and 1 pickle between second and third). They didn’t have a chance. The bullpen struck out 2 more and added 4 more ground ball outs. Let me do the math… that means… carry the one…. the Yankees had one lonely fly out. And if you must know it was hit right at Taveras (he moved four steps). No errors on the day; the only mistake was Francis’, a mistake he fixed immediately, and by the way, it wasn’t even that big of a mistake. 6th inning, one out, speedster Cabrera on second, Jeter up, count 1-1. Francis goes fastball inside. The pitch had pretty good location, Jeter just guessed perfectly; he sent it down the left field line. Cabrera could have scored from first on that one. Next batter, Abreu hit right back a Francis and he turned right around to run down Jeter who suddenly froze between second and third (good heads up play). Other defensive highlights included Hideki striking out twice on the same exact pitch (slider low and away). Call me crazy, but shouldn’t millionaire ballplayers learn and adjust? In the 4th, Francis Ked Abreu with two called fastball that looked outside to me. Next batter: A-Rod. Francis goes: fastball-low ball, fastball-called strike, fastball-strike foul, change up-ball low, to get 2-2. I’m thinking slider should close, Francis thought fastball would. Apparently, A-Rod was thinking along the lines I was as he swung way behind the pitch. K. Francis posted a 9 pitch inning in the 5th (1 K and 2 ground outs). Also, runners at first and second, two outs, 6th inning; Jeff Francis facing Posada (who at the time had the highest batting average in the league) went curveball-called strike, curveball-low ball, fastball-strike foul, fastball-K. Normally pitchers start with fastballs and finish with curveball. Jeff Francis has got some balls. Hawkins came in the 8th, and got a ground out to 3rd, a ground out to SS, and a ground out to 1st. Good inning. Affeldt came in the 9th, and struck out 2. He Ked Posada on three straight pitches: Fastball-called strike, and the two nastiest curves I’ve ever seen him throw (the second one dropped eight inches). Maybe I was wrong about him.
Helton reached a pretty big milestone, 1000 hits at Coors field. He is first player to do so. It was his first at bat; first pitch fastball, hit to left. Standing in the batter’s box, he had the look of a man who was going to swing at whatever the first pitch was. Pettitte keep it close for a while. In the 3rd, he struck out Taveras with 3 pitches. (2 of which were low ball ones). Next batter: Kaz hits a chopper to third he should have been safe on, but A-Rod charges and makes a perfect throw. Awesome play. Pettitte had 4 Ks of his own. But in the 6th came his mistake. He walked the pitcher and I pumped my fist. If you walk the pitcher bad things happen. Taveras switch places with Francis on a fielder’s choice. Kaz popped out. Keep in mind, the inning just ended if he had gotten Francis out. Holiday sent the next pitch to the promenade, and flipped the score around. It was a well thrown change up; Holiday just has a great killer instinct. In the 7th, the wheels came off. One out, no one on, Tulo nailed a 2-2 fastball through the hole at SS. Torrealba hit a first pitch fastball to center. Spilborghs hit into a fielder’s choice, Tulo to third, Torrealba out at second (Torrealba’s slide prevented the double play). Taveras batting and A-Rod pinched in to field a bunt. Taveras, hit a fastball hard right at A-Rod, who was to close to field it, Tulo scored. Then came the big gash. Kaz battled to a full count. Force to throw fastball or risk loading the bases, Pettitte throws fastball low. Kaz rips it down the left field line. Speed on the bases, Spilborghs and Taveras score easily. Hideki, a newcomer to Coors, doesn’t know about the Coors field foul line phenomenon and blows the fielding; Kaz cruses into third for a triple and I write “Goodbye Andy Pettitte” in my notebook. Vizcaino Pitching, Holiday slapped the third pitch up the middle to score Kaz. In an interview after the game Andy Pettitte said, and I’m paraphrasing, “After the home run, I gave up pitching. I stopped using my curve ball. I just stopped pitching.” Attitudes like that do not bode well for the Yankees. Lastly, I am a Yankees fan, but I was surprised how much I routed against them this series. I only routed for them only one at bat in the entire series. I wanted to see A-Rod hit one out in the 9th when the game was already over. I guess I bleed purpler than I thought.
Game 3:
Rockies 4, Yankees 3
I didn’t get to see this game (stupid day job), but I looked at the stats and a few things stand out to me. There were three homeruns on the day: Hideki Matsui, Garrett Atkins, and Troy Tulowitski. Hideki and Atkins homered on 2-0 counts, Tulo on a full count. I imagine all three pitches in those situations were fastballs, and I’ll bet all three were expected. What I find further remarkable is Hideki doesn’t hit homeruns, Garrett has been hot lately but is not hitting well this year, and Tulo is a rookie. Now Tulo may have battled to the full count, but the other two were handed fastballs they knew would be coming. Don’t fall behind in the count to sub par hitters or low-power hitters. It will burn you. You know what else will burn you, base runners. The Yankees allowed 14 base runners in 8 innings. Rockies reached second base in 6 different innings. In the 7th, the Yankees had a nice work around the bases. Cano doubled, Cairo bunt-sacrificed, Cabrera fly-sacrificed. It even looks pretty in print with all the C-names. The Rocks score a couple in the 5th. One out in the 5th, he hit to center and stole second. Holiday hit to center and scored Kaz. Helton hit to center and moved Holiday to third. If you have that many hits to center in a row, you’re pitcher has stop changing his pitch speed. Torre rightly pulled Clements. Atkins came up and fly-sacrificed Holiday home. Lastly, I noticed a lone error on the board and when I looked at it as was shocked. 8th inning, one out, Torrealba on first, Baker pinch hitting. The play-by-play read: “On Damon’s error on a pickoff attempt, Torrealba to second.” What? I looked up the position chart, and Johnny Damon was on first, Farnsworth pitching, Posada was catching. Damon never plays first, and Torrealba isn’t exactly a threat to steal. Farnworth or Posada (I don’t who made the mistake so I’ll chide you both), I know you’re in close game and every out is important, but don’t snap throw to a guy who never plays first base. You’re asking for an error. Especially don’t throw if the guy you’re trying to pick off isn’t a threat to steal or even leg out a double play. Stupid.
Next Series:At
Toronto Blue Jays 34-37
The first affair is Hirsh vs. Towers. Now I’m not the biggest Hirsh fan, but Towers is worse. I’ve seen him pitch and this will be a battle of the bad pitchers. Game 2 is Cook vs. Taubenheim. I don’t know Taubenheim, but his stats say he ain’t good. He is a second year, making his first appearance this year, and I don’t if he has been injured or is just making his first appearance since being called up. Either way, Aaron is better and should want to make up for last game. Last game is Fogg vs. McGowan. McGowan is decent and will be pitching at home, this one will be tough. The Blue Jays aren’t exactly knocking ‘em out the park (or around the park for that matter) but they are at home and the Rockies are bound to rest starters.
Prediction:
Rockies 2-1
Who knew the Jays would clean our clocks like that, huh?
Goes to show that when the Rocks are good, they’re very good, but when they’re bad… hooboy. They’re very bad.
That’s not just the Rocks, hell, that’s not just baseball, That’s Sports.