Early Winter Blast Blankets Rockies Game
Autumn snowfall threatens to impact NLDS in the Phillies favor
(photo from 9news.com)
**UPDATE 10/10/09 3:30pm ** – The Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders reports that J.A. Happ will start Game 3 in place of Pedro Martinez, and a Cliff Lee/Ubaldo Jimenez rematch is on deck for Game 4. This means that the Rockies will not get past Philly without some serious improvement against left-handed pitching. This was the change that we were afraid of. I never thought I’d utter the words “I’d rather face Pedro Martinez”, but in this case it’s true. The Phillies definitely get the better of this weather-induced shakeup.
DENVER – Major League Baseball has postponed tonight’s NLDS game 3 between the Rockies and the Phillies due to frigid temperatures and snowfall. This is the peril of playing baseball in October in Colorado, to be sure. Unfortunately, the Phillies stand to benefit much more by this delay than the Rockies do. What this does, is make it imperative that this series does not return to Philadelphia. Not only would a Game 5 in Philly be on an extremely fast travel turnaround, but the Rockies will still face one of Philly’s top 2 lefty pitchers. Now, they would have been facing Cliff Lee in a Game 5 anyway, most likely. But what this delay does is push Game 4 to Monday, making it all but certain that the Rockies will have to face Lee again, only in Game 4 instead of 5. This is bad news – instead of looking at 2 home games facing the back end of the Phillies’ rotation, the Rockies get one game against Martinez and his geriatric arm then it’s right back to the big guns on Monday. A much better scenario would have been a cold and shivering Game 3, then put the Phillies’ backs against the wall with a Game 4, perhaps with Ubaldo on the mound. But now, it’s going to be Hammels vs. Martinez Sunday, and I suppose Tracy will trot out Ubaldo vs. Lee on Monday? I can’t imagine putting Marquis on the mound against Lee, especially if the Rockies can’t come up with a win in Game 3.
Either way, tomorrow is shaping up to be one of the biggest days on the Colorado sports scene in quite a while – we have the Hoodie Bowl at 2pm, followed up by the NLDS at 8pm (?!). The time for Monday’s Game 4 has not yet been announced, as MLB and TBS are most certainly waiting to see the outcome of the other series (the Angels, Yankees, and Dodgers all hold 2-0 leads and could wrap up their series this weekend).
