On a day that saw the 21st perfect game pitched in Seattle, and a major meltdown by the Red Sox in the 7th inning in Boston, the Rockies decided to mash-up the two in their 9-4 loss Saturday night to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Drew Pomeranz was perfect through four innings, keeping the Brewers guessing and mostly looking foolish at the plate. He looked like he was well on his way to a gem, but that quickly changed in the fifth as he came out and quickly walked Aramis Ramirez on four pitches. He then gave up a double to Corey Hart, watched as Wilin let a ball go to the backstop and gave up another double to Alex Gonzalez before walking Mat Gamel. The nightmare didn’t end there as Lucroy moved Alex Gonzalez and Mat Gamel over on a sacrifice bunt. Thankfully Chris Nelson made a great play coming home to get Gonzalez out and after walking Weeks Pomeranz induced a pop-out to get out of the inning.
You’d think that was the bad inning of the game, but you’d be very wrong as after all of that only two scored. It was a much different story in the 7th as six runners touched home plate in what can only be described as a Esmil Rogers, Edgmer Escalona meltdown that saw two wild pitches, triples and an intentional walk right before a 3 run home run.
It was a very bad ending to a game that started so well. Well, at least for Pomeranz. The Brewers had Marco Estrada on the mound for a spot start, and the Rockies just couldn’t seem to figure out how to hit off of him. He only gave up one hit, a Rosario double in three innings. The other hit came in the fourth from Tulo – a home run, his second of the season, on a 3-2 pitch.
OTHER NOTES:
- Cargo, Cuddy and Nellie went a combined 0 for 12.
- Helton hit a home hun in the 9th (his team leading 3rd) on a one-handed, half-hearted swing that cleared the right field fence.
- Tulo was 2-4 with two RBI’s and no errors.
- Escalona’s ERA, after the 3 run HR climbed to 40.50
Question. Was Ramon Hernandez hurt? If not he should have started to help nurse Pomeranz along. I always thought the managers job was to put his players in the best position to succeed, but Tracy doesn’t think that way. Obviously the positives for Pomeranz was that he pitched much better than last Sunday and did get out of the 5th giving up only 2 runs. Could have been alot worse. Also perhaps if a veteran catcher was in there could have been better.
Then Tracy decision to let Rogers hit for himself and pitch the 7th backfired. 3 innings to go, you still have your 4 best relief pitchers to go to: Reynolds, Belisle, Brothers and Betancourt and he goes with Rogers and then Esacalona. And we get hammered.
Are we playing the B team tomorrow since it’s Sunday. I presume Hernandez will play (unless he’s hurt) because Tracy doesn’t play a catcher in a day game after a night. Ditto for Helton. He should have played Hernandez tonight and Rosario on Sunday. But if Tracy is anything, he’s stubborn. Hey things could be worse. You could be a Boston Red Sox fan tonight.
Well, so much for Esmil Rogers, set-up man. I know Tracy was trying to squeeze a couple innings out of the back end of the bullpen, but Reynolds would have been the obvious guy to go to. We’ve all talked about how the back end of the bullpen is a problem, and obviously that’s right. Roenicke has been solid, but he’s not a guy you’d want to entrust with a lead either. I’d expect some major shifts in the bullpen before too long. After Betancourt-Belisle-Brothers-Reynolds, there’s really nobody who looks like a keeper, so they’ll have to try to keep piecing things together. Finding useful veteran bullpen arms has been one of O’Dowd’s skills over the years, so let’s see if he can pull it off again.
He had one bad inning. We shouldn’t be so quick to throw him under the bus. Especial with how well he has done up until now. Every pitcher has a bad inning here and there.
I’m not too worried about the team just yet. If they can get out of April at .500, it would be one of their better starts (last year excepted, but we all know how that turned out). There are only five teams with better records at this point, so it’s not time to hit the panic button.
On a side note, how come we haven’t nicknamed the starting pitching the J.Crew? Or Drew and the J.Crew? (Jeremy, Jamie, Juan, and Jhoulys, with Jorge and Josh under repair.) Must be something that can be marketed with that!
I like it! The J Crew starts and gets relieved by the Killer B’s.
So let’s get JCrew + the Killer Bs ready for Surrender Sunday!