Tyler Colvin stands-in for Carlos Gonzalez, who has a case of strep throat, for tonight’s middle contest in Colorado’s 3 game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona rolls-out right-hander Josh Collmenter to face the Rockies’ Jhoulys Chacin, making his second start of the 2012 season. Chacin went four innings in Monday’s home-opener against San Francisco, and along with Gonzalez, who dropped an easy fly ball in left field, played the goat in the lackadaisical 7-0 loss, an effort that stirred the anger of the RWO faithful, prompting psychological angst and intellectual brilliance never before posted on a baseball website. Chacin threw 90 pitches, allowing 4 runs on 4 hits and 5 walks, taking the loss before giving way to 3 relievers. His ERA sits at an even 9.0, with a WHIP of 2.25.
Collmenter is 0-0 with a 15.0 ERA following a three inning start in Arizona’s 7-6 victory over the Giants. All 6 of the San Francisco runs were charged to Collmenter, 5 of them earned. The righty went 2-1 against Colorado in 2011, compiling a 2.81 ERA and recording 12 strike-outs.
Troy Tulowitzski, Todd Helton, and Michael Cuddyer move up a spot in tonight’s order for Jim Tracy to make room for Colvin, who will bat 6th. The lineups:
Diamondbacks (5-2)
3B Ryan Roberts
LF Gerardo Parra
RF Justin Upton
C Miguel Montero
CF Chris Young
1B Lyle Overbay
2B Aaron Hill
SS John McDonald
RHP Josh Collmenter
Rockies (3-4)
2B Marco Scutaro
CF Dexter Fowler
SS Troy Tulowitzki
1B Todd Helton
RF Michael Cuddyer
LF Tyler Colvin
C Ramon Hernandez
3B Jordan Pacheco
RHP Jhoulys Chacin
COLORADO DEFEATS ARIZONA 7-6 IN FRIDAY NIGHT CONTEST AT COORS
The Colorado Rockies recovered from an early game deficit Friday evening, rallying in the bottom of the eighth inning to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks before a crowd of 30,642 at Coors Field. Rockies starter Juan Nicasio, making his first start at Coors since the August 5, 2011 head and neck injury that ended his rookie season, looked sharp out of the gate, only to queerly falter after retiring the first two Diamondbacks’ hitters.
After disposing of Willie Bloomquist and Jason Kubel, Nicasio proceeded to walk Justin Upton on 5 pitches, Miguel Montero on 10 pitches and Chris Young on another 6, loading the bases and running his pitch count to 31. After a visit to the mound by Colorado pitching coach Bob Apodaca, D’backs 1st-baseman Paul Goldschmidt worked Nicasio for another 8 pitches, singling to center to score Upton and Montero. Nicasio finally retired Geoff Blum to cap-off a 44 pitch inning.
Colorado got one back in the bottom of the first on center-fielder Dexter Fowler’s first home run of 2012. Nicasio recovered nicely, dispatching Arizona on 12 pitches to start the second. The Rockies then tied it-up on Ramon Hernandez’ gigantic blast over the center field wall in the bottom of the inning.
Nicasio’s respite, however, proved short-lived. Montero homered to right field, scoring Upton, who had bunted for a single in front of 3rd-baseman Chris Nelson with the Rockies infield playing deep. Nicasio then issued his career-high 4th walk to Young. Goldschmidt singled to center, pushing Young to third base, where he scored on a sacrifice fly by Arizona 3rd-sacker Blum. Ryan Roberts then doubled to right, scoring Goldschmidt and ending the night for the erstwhile Nicasio. Esmil Rogers relieved and retired Bloomquist to end the inning.
The Rockies stormed right back, Hernandez driving in Troy Tulowitzski, who had singled, and Michael Cuddyer to make the score 6-4 Arizona after three. Rogers was impressive in the fourth, retiring the Diamondbacks in order after Kubel led-off with a single and Upton doubled him to third. Then the Rockies tied the game for a second time with two more runs in the bottom of the inning. After Fowler had grounded into a double play, erasing Mario Scutaro who had singled, Carlos Gonzalez and Tulowitzski followed with singles, and Rockies mainstay Todd Helton drove them both home on a ground-single to left-field.
The contest suddenly turned defensive with the score tied. Matt Belisle relieved Rogers in the sixth, and delivered a clutch performance of his own in the top of the seventh, setting down three Arizona batters after Michael Cuddyer became the third Colorado starting outfielder to blow an easy fly-ball catch, waving good-bye as Montero’s lead-off line-drive headed for the wall. Rex Brothers set the Diamondbacks down in the top of the eighth with an assist from Hernandez, who caught Ryan Roberts trying to advance on a pitch in the dirt that skittered away from the Rockies’ catcher.
Colorado pulled ahead in the bottom of the eighth. With one out Gonzalez singled to left, and advanced to third on a pick-off throw that eluded Arizona 1st-baseman Goldschmidt. After Tulowitzski fanned, Helton plated Gonzalez with a double down the left-field line. Rafael Betancourt allowed the D’backs one base runner on a Miguel Montero single to center in the ninth for his second save of 2012. Betancourt has yet to allow a run in the new season.
The teams pick it up again Saturday evening at 6:10 pm. Jhoulys Chacin will take the hill for Colorado against Arizona’s Josh Collmenter. Root Sports will have the TV coverage, am 850 KOA the radio broadcast.
Wish I knew how to copy the comments from the line-up post over. Jared’s keeping me up late. Time for bed.
Great Job on the wrap up Jeem. I have thought about telling JD I’d help with this…then I read yours and realized how much more attention I would have to pay to the game!! I kept thinking..Oh yeah, that did happen, I forgot about that.
Thx. “Gameday” provides you with pretty much all the info you need. I guess watching is what adds a little life anyway.
Don’t sell yourself short my friend, you did an AMAZING job doing write-ups and it is much harder than relying on “gameday”, i’ve found that out the hard way. Come on, “Ryan Theriot’s can-o-corn pop-up” – that is pure poetry!
Dude where have you been? I was starting to worry. Welcome back. I’m working on the game summary now (after a nap). I’ll pass the torch back to you for tomorrow. Yeah, funny how much sloppier the writing gets when you’ve got to keep it up day after day. I guess a writer’s version of what the “long slog” is like for the players.
The first comeback of many I hope to see this season.
The team is alive. To point out the first HR of the season for Fowler and Ramon, but the key player in this game IMO was Esmil Rogers. His confidence to retire the next three batters after two consecutive hits, plus those two innings of stability that gave a chance to to tie the game were the turning point in the game
Offensively, Helton and Ramon were marvelous. 6 RBI between them… They were the engine tonight.
GO ROCKIES!
Yes on Rogers! He really found his groove there after 2 on in the fourth. Zinging those 97 mph heaters.
Jeem, good write-up. Just nitpicking here, but Rafael gave up a hit in the 9th to Montero, before getting the save.
This is another one of those games the 2011 Rockies would have lost. They would have left it at 6-6 indefinitely, allowing Arizona to win in 11 innings.
Minor League report for last night:
Col Springs (l 14-0) Ouch! First home game. Apparently the humidor hasn’t kicked in yet.
DJ Lemahieu- 1-3 (.306 BA)
C. Blackmon (1st game back from DL) 1-4
Tulsa (W 9-4)
Dan Houston (W, 1-1) – 6 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks, 5.25 ERA
Josh Rutledge- 2-4, 2 HRs (2 & 3), 3 RBI (.265 BA)
N. Arenado- 1-3, Double, RBI (.387)
Kent Matthes- 2-3, HR (3), Double, 2 RBI (.259 BA)
Ben Paulsen- pinch hit 2-run HR (2) (.292 BA)
Modesto (W 9-1)
Corey Dickerson- 3-5, HR, 2 RBI (.461 BA)
Ashville (W 9-4)
Dan Winkler (W 1-1)- 5 IP, 4 ER, 5 Ks
Trevor Story- 1-3, HR, RBI (.333 BA
Rosell Herrera- 1-4 (.292 BA)
Big news out of yesterday’s minors is Tim Wheeler has a broken hammate bone in his wrist. Will be out a month.
Jeem, great summary.
Cisco, that Corey Dickerson start is encouraging. His performance at Asheville last year was superficially strong: 30 HRs and a better than .600 slugging percentage. But he was tremendous at the Asheville bandbox and really, really terrible on the road – like, barely hitting over .200 with just half a dozen of those HRs on the road. We’ve seen the Joe Koshanskys before, so if Dickerson can adjust to hitting in more neutral parks, we may have a real prospect on our hands. Worth watching.
I had just given up on Rogers, but his stuff was really impressive last night. I’ll float a completely unsubstantiated theory: he’s one of this guys who does better with more work and could prove to be an effective guy if he gets enough work out of the pen.
Regarding the minor leaguers:
Tough news on Wheeler. OTOH, it’s good to see Blackmon in the lineup.
Tulsa seems to be stacked with prospects who played well last year for Modesto. Who are the real prospects on Modesto this year who we should be keeping an eye on other than Dickerson, Parker, and Matzek?
The boxscore indicated that Lemahieu has five errors. That’s awful. Anybody have any insight on his fielding?
Regarding major leaguers:
In years past, we took other’s teams unsuccessful players and turned them into good players, such as DLR and Belisle. Who is the last player that we got from another team who fits that description? In recent years, it seems that it has swung the other way, with our unsuccessful players becoming successful on other teams, such as F. Morales, Paulino, and Ian Stewart this year. Is that a player development problem, a major league coaching problem, or what?
You can probably put Cargo in that category for us
Too early to know, but Tyler Colvin is looking good for us.
I thought Kaz Matsui and Yorvit Torrealba were pretty essential to the 2007 team. Not sure if they were in the “failure club” prior.
Colvin and Roenicke are candidates to become useful players here after desultory careers elsewhere.
And while Stewart has obviously had a good start, it’s only eight games into the season—way too early to deem him a success with the Cubs.
Are we gonna get this game in tonight?
Tyler Colvin! My man!!!
What ate the rules for making this game official? If it doesn’t become official when how do they decide to restart or continue from where it left off?
It has to go 5 1/2.
4 1/2 jeem … as long as the home team is leading
Lets say it kept raining all night. Would they restart from the first inning or would they resume at the 5th tomorrow? Don’t they sometimes wipe out the score and start over?
they start over from the beginning…BUT, I’m pretty sure all stats count…not 100% on the stats counting however
Thanks, that’s what I thought, but also thought I’ve seen games get resumed too.
Don’t think the stats count
Hey Ed, if you play 4 1/2 innings and the home team is winning, is it an official game? Or do you have to play a whole 5 innings to be official?
I wish they could have squeezed in the top of the 5th. Chacin is looking pretty good whereas Collmenter is cooked. So the delay helps AZ. If they have to wait a while does Jim Tracy send Chacin back out there?
4 1/2 if the home team is ahead
Thanks Ed. Damn I was so sure…
nope…chacin will be out…the delay was to long…now watch me be totally wrong
Thanks Ed.
I just saw the replay of the Cuddyer infield RBI single. Good hustle and one damn fine slide by Dex!
currently killing time waiting for the resumption working on a special project for RWO.
KOA saying game back on at 905pm
KOA replay interview with Vin Scully conducted by Jack Corrigan was magnificent…hope some of you heard it…
sitting and listening in my party bus…did not go into coors field…too damn cold for my old bones…
now let’s hold on and get another win against the snakes!
I love Vin, I felt his answers were like him describing a game I’m not a Dodgers fan but I always flip over to the Dodgers games after the Rockies to hear him. he has been sick for a few days but should be in the booth tomorrow!!
Not an easy game at 3rd for Pacheco tonight.
Geez not a good showing here by #30
You have GOT to get ahead of hitters in this game…damn.
It is statisticly correct…when the pitcher throws a first pitch strike, the hiters BA goes down 100 points…damn.
Guess Tracy doesn’t care about saving the bullpen. Roenicke, Reynolds and belisle in two innings. He’s got to be the worst manager in baseball. What the hell Tulo!!!!!!!!
Agreed about the bullpen…what is Tracy thinking?
These Tulo errors remind me of Elway in Rain/Snow Games couldn’t throw it. Maybe gloves would help?
Tracy over thinking again?
Doesn’t he always?
Tiny hands tulo needs to be an burger king commercials
I know conditions are miserable out there tonight, but team defense has been atrocious so far this season. Pitchers can’t be expected to get four and five outs per inning.
Pacheco is simply not ready to play third base in the big leagues. Why put him out there in a position to fail? His throwing has been dreadful.
Scutaro looks like this years Jose lopez
Any reason we didn’t hurry to finish the bottom of the 4th so we wouldn’t have to be going through this slop … ???
Just to be clear … the hurrying would have most likely allowed the D-backs to bat through the top of the 5th …
To mean commit outs on purpose?
Program … Yes.
I’ll be pissed if the umps call the game when we’re behind
As Upton just came across to make it 6-5, I reminded myself that 2 hours ago I thought we had this in the bag…sheesh. Walks and Errors man….
one team came out of the rain delay ready to play baseball the other team didn’t ey Jr would be a much better option at second base!
listening to the KOA feed…”since the rain delay the Dbacks have scored in all 3 innings”…you said it pooter…uggh.
Who is the gold glove SS, Tulo or McDonald?o
Who is the silver slugger SS, Tulo or McDonald?
Yep…McDonald might not have a Gold Glove, but he was one of the AL’s best defensive shortstops for many years at Toronto.
Wade Miley (who?) goes right through heart of Rockies order in about 7 pitches…for his third straight scoreless inning.
The Rockies were in a hurry to get back out and stand in the rain.
So I took a 20 second piss and missed the whole bottom half of the inning? Nice to see our guys making the pitcher work…………..
Geez, our D is atrocious.
Gotta love blowing through pitchers AND blowing the game all at the same time. Brilliant managerial job leaving the bad pitchers in too long and pulling the ones that actually get outs after 1 or 2 hitters. Love it!
This is embarrassing. Whatever happened to playing with pride at home?
Let’s see when O’Dowd’s much-acclaimed “Culture of Accountability” kicks in.
Seems every time we have a rain delay the offense gets blanked after the restart . I’m talking about not just this year but over the last few years as well.
On an unrelated note, I love hearing the crowds on these rain delay games. You can hear some pretty funny stuff.
Got here late. A few quick thoughts… on the Tulo error after 2nd delay (the 1st error), why didn’t Todd tag the runner? The runner turned inside the baseline. Should have been an out, unless one of you set me straight. He wasn’t going to 2nd, but was still inside the line by about 3-4 feet.
I had a feeling before the 1st delay that they wouldn’t call the game with the Rox ahead at
4 1/2. As the night has gone on, their decision was justified, so I stand corrected.
Why do the Rox have so much trouble gripping the ball and the Snakes don’t seem to be having too much trouble? Isn’t Arizona drier than we are?
These cluster-bleep games always have a knack of resulting in weird results and bad fortune. Or maybe good fortune, if you are seeing life through purple colored glasses, like I so often do. Ever notice how many long streaks (winning and losing) seem to start after weird games like these? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like they do.
Will there be a game on Sunday? I hear it’s going to snow.
Yes, Todd missed the tag the first time, but I maintain he should have tagged him after he semi-rounded the bag.
Maybe they should find a spot for EY after all. Some others (other than Cuddy, Ramon and Colvin) don’t seem to want to make anything happen anyway! OK then, let’s get em in the 9th! If a pitcher can keep them down in the top half, that is!
I have to give FGH some credit, or maybe just Huson, for questioning our perrenial manager’s pitching decisions and for pointing out Scutaro’s blunder.
FREAKING WOW!
Hells yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Todd is reclaiming his place as the face of this team.
OLD MAN HELTON!!! WOOT WOOT!
I might just have to go out and charm some sweet young thing tonight… the karma for old farts might be just right! lol Can you believe it? Man, I’m numb.
Wow….again they win a game that they would of lost last year.
Rox walk off!
I believe we already have more walkoffs this year than last year!!!!!!!! Rally Todd!!!!!
Currently in AZ so watching the DBacks announcers. Grace called it, saying “Helton is the one man, in all of baseball, you do not want to face in this situation”.
Gracie knows. If he was still playing, he might have been the guy who hit one of his 2 annual dingers to win it! Wish we saw more of him around here.
Thank God for Todd!!!
Wow! I was going to write and complain about over-managing and how the weather seemed to only bother the team that plays outdoors in all kinds of weather while the indoor team seemed to play even better.
Then Todd did his number. So I’ll save my complaints about Tracy for another day. And I’m sure they’ll be another day.
And I’m I correct that all our wins this year have been come from behind wins?
Wow, Tracy was quite defensive for a winning manager tonight. Though I must say I agree with his rationale. Thought Cavnar may have pissed him off a bit, but maybe I misjudged it.
was a fair question and a fair answer.
Walked into the hotel room from bar hopping in God-knows-where in Brazil. I had left my laptop running. First thing I heard was the replay of the RWO. Great end to my night!
So, Pomeranz pitches on Sunday. This means some one will be sent down. Any thoughts on who?
And of course the Sunday line up. Who wants to take a shot at what it will be?
I’d guess Roenicke, who hasn’t been used much. Reynolds will likely stick around simply because he’s a lefty.
Conditions will hardly be ideal for Pomeranz…a high of low 50′s with snow showers possible in the morning and rain showers forecast during the afternoon. A rainout might be advantageous, giving the bullpen a day off.
Reynolds
And I missed it! Didn’t think they would finish the game tonight and we were cold and wet. It’s 5-1… awesome. Things were going well. Get home and turn on the tv and go into melt down!!! Turned the channel. Bad call on my part.
Trip, I think Herrera will be the one sent down since he has options remaining, but it’s a tough choice. Young looks like he can provide some excitement and offense off the bench, but he can’t play third. And Pacheco obviously has a long, long way to go defensively, so you could argue they should keep Herrera, a superior defender, for utility IF role.
I agree.It is a tough call but another long rain delay Sunday means we need all the pitchers we can keep.Altough they might send Jonny[sorry Jaredean]and Roenicke down and bring a fresh arm up.Maybe a long man fill in like Moscoso or White.Could also send Chatwood since he probably won’t be available for a couple of days,and then bring him back after minimum stay.And I missed all the ist half chat,but Ive always thought that a game had to go 51/2 in. to be official no matter who is ahead.I thought it had to go 41/2 to be suspended,then resumed,and less than 41/2 and you start over.That’s simply one senior citizens belief.
Ed set me straight. They have to finish the top half of the fifth. Therefore 4 1/2 innings.
I think Gary is on to something. There is going to be some shuffling to bring up a fresh arm.
Very unlikely that Roenicke will be sent down as he is out of options and probability of passing through waivers is about 0%. Herrera could be sent down but my candidate would be Pacheco. It is unfair to expect him to have to learn to play 3rd base at the MLB level. All the bench time is not helping him either. Send him down to get regular playing time and also to learn 3rd base if that is going to be his position.
If you have to send a relief pitcher down I think that Chatwood is the obvious choice as IMO he should be getting regular starts in the minors and not be used in a position that he is not accustomed to. Reynolds and Brothers are the only other relief pitchers that I can think of that also still have options available.
Not sure if they have decided who to send down but I would think it would be Nelson or Roenicke. I like Pacheco. He can hit and his fielding isn’t bad. Last night he had two balls hit to him at 3rd that could have been DP’s but he was a little slow in getting them to 2nd and a bit off-line. However in both cases he got at least one out and gave Scutaro at least a chance to make the play. Remember both the ball and the field were wet. Tulo made two poorer throws and then the Rockies infield botched a couple of other plays in the infield.
I like Pacheco’s versatility because he can play catcher as well as 1st and 2nd. Johnny H can’t catch and really can’t hit enough. Hopefully they’ll be able to play this afternoon. It was nice at 8 AM which is when they should have played the game. Getting colder and wetter as the day goes along.