Rockies SP Jorge de la Rosa

As I sit to compose this, it’s still the top of the 8th. I know it’s bad form to start writing the obituary before the guy is dead… but to say the Rocks are on life support in this game, and by extension the division title race, is being kind at best. I won’t press the “publish” button until the game is actually over, just to be safe, but I think we all know how this is going down.

What started out to be a pitcher’s duel, has turned into an old-fashioned drubbing. De La Rosa started solid, and Contreras did a fine job holding down the fort when Jorge left early with “tightness” in his groin.

Enter Franklin Morales. I’m not really sure what happened, other than the Dodgers sending 10 to the plate, and 5 of them rounding the bases and putting a tally on the board, with 2 more stranded. Franklin clearly is not pitching like he was when Street was down. Even the closeout game against Milwaukee was an adventure in the 9th – Morales just can’t help but get into trouble, then struggle to work out of it. This is something to be considered when the playoffs roll around.

Here’s the other thing though. I know this is easy to say after the fact, but I was talking with someone the other night mentioning that I wasn’t so sure that a sweep of LA on the heels of the Milwaukee sweep and heading into the playoffs was the best thing for this team. On a long streak, you know you’re going to honk a game at some point. That’s what made 07 so remarkable, was the length of the streak. But in reality, you just don’t win that many in a row without dropping one at some point. I would rather the Rockies drop this one, take the wild card and head into the playoffs with a bit of a wound but ready to play, than on an emotional high that gets deflated by dropping game 1 or 2 of the NLDS. They have to play a very good team in the NLDS, regardless of the outcome. Home field would have been nice, don’t get me wrong, but you have to love that dropping this game is not the end of the world for this team. It’s a pretty easy spin to say it’s not a big deal. Shake it off, enjoy the fact that Game 162 is the first game of the year that is truly meaningless, take the bonus day off, then head off to Philly or St. Louis (hopefully STL) and hit the ground running in Game 1.

This loss stings, because the division title was so close in reach after such a long journey to get there. But it’s not a season-killer, and it will not sap this team’s confidence. Let this town focus on the Broncos tomorrow, then this Wednesday let the second season begin, because once again, our Boys of Summer are playing Autumn Baseball, and that alone is a special kind of sweet.

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Then there’s Wednesday. I know Marquis got absolutely hammered – but I really think that was just an off game. I have several friends that are hard-core Cubs fans, and they all say the same thing – Marquis is brilliant when he’s on, but gets shelled when he’s not – no middle ground. So I’m not too concerned about him. What does concern me is that Ubaldo and Marquis both lose, and now we have to grit our teeth and hold our breath while Hammel and De La Rosa take the mound for the next couple games. I really don’t want to see Matt Holliday bomb the Rox, but I think it might happen.

What’s intriguing to me is that the Rockies lineup is built much like an AL lineup, especially when they get to use the DH… it looks like a really good fit in the AL. But the last couple nights, they simply couldn’t get the job done.

We all know the Rockies pitching woes will continue until they can get another arm in the bullpen. For that matter, I think Fogg needs to be starting in the 5th spot and send De la Rosa to clean up sunflower seeds in the bullpen. But if they can’t keep putting runs across when the opportunities are there, this team will die a slow painful death. It was the bats that got this whole hot stretch started, and it will have to be the bats that keep it going.

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