A day after Rockies fans were calling for the head of Bob Apodaca, Alex White shows that not all pitching in Colorado is walk prone. Too bad he can’t be heard over the cries for Carney Lansford’s accountability card.
The Colorado Rockies were victims of a complete game shutout by Kevin Millwood and the Seattle Mariners, losing 4-0. Yep, the very same Millwood that pitched in Denver last season. The same Millwood that didn’t want the $1 million the team offered with another $1 million in incentives. He wanted a third million, and all of it up front.
The Rockies, fresh off the signing of Michael Cuddyer and Kevin Slowey, didn’t have the budget. Tonight Millwood proved they should have not only made the offer, but doubled down on a new hitting coach to boot.
Heck, throw in some base running lessons and call it a day.
After yesterdays fiasco, the post game was all about how bad the pitching was, how many walks were given up, the 0-2 and 1-2 counts that were launched like 3-1 pitches, etc. etc. etc.
Alex White Start - photo by Rox Addict
So, tonight Alex White answered with a mini-gem of his own. He took the mound and showed that he knew how to get batters out and it wasn’t by giving them a free pass and hope they get out on a double-play. White went seven innings with as many strikeouts and only two earned runs. The key? No walks…
And how did the offense respond? The same offense who was complaining the night before about how their hits went for naught thanks to the pitching?
How about only getting 2 hits in nine innings? Kevin Millwood two hit the Rockies a day after the team put up seven runs on 12 hits.
Tonight’s scapegoat? Villain? Blunder master?
That would be Marco Scutaro. Wednesday’s hero was today’s zero. He was “gifted” first base by an “error” that ended up becoming the first hit of the game after 6 2/3′s of no hit baseball, and the very next hit (and the only other hit of the game) ended the mini-rally because instead of staying at second on a shallow up the middle shot by Jordan Pacheco, Scutaro decided that it would be better to go to third and get thrown out.
Third out at third…as taboo as running on an infield pop-up with less than two outs. As mindless as sliding head first into home plate (right matt?). As dumb as…well, you get the point.
Nevermind that Carlos Gonazalez was at the plate, the same guy that is hitting just under a billion with runners in scoring position. Nevermind that you don’t have the speed of EYj, nor the love of the fans like…EYj. Not to mention the luck.
So, a day after pitching was vilified, hitting will be latest swear word. If only this team realized how tired everyone is of such poorly played games and really put the passion into it. The only passion we’ve seen in a while? EYj getting “hit” by a pitch in the ninth. Too bad Scutaro was next to bat and didn’t allow the fastest man in the game some time to make magic happen on the paths before bunting his way into an out.
About all the walks. I had the impression that at least in the case of Nicasio that Hernandez was causing his missed strikes because of all the jumping around he does behind the plate when catching. In the 4 games Hernandez has caught Nicasio he has gone 1-2 and 1 ND with 15 walks. In the 4 games that Rosario has caught him he is 1-0 and 3 ND and has given up 2 walks.
In the games that Hernandez has caught there have been a total of 110 walks given up. Of course he did caught all of the walk machine’s (Chacin) games so there is a total of 15 walks there which is the same number that he managed to get out of Nicasio.
Since Hernandez is catching games at a rate of 2:1 versus Rosario, a person could reasonably expect his caught walks to be approximately double the amount of walks that Rosario has caught. However the ratio is 3.33:1.
Hernandez – 110 walks caught; Rosario – 33 walks caught.
It remains my belief that Hernandez jumping around behind the plate causes the additional walks by failing to give the pitchers a stationary target to pitch to and that it may also affect how the umpires call balls and strikes at times because of all the movement.
Very interesting post, K.
IF Rosario could learn to hit the curve ball and block the ball in the dirt better, I would play him the 2:1 ratio. Probably not gonna happen.
I know as an ex-umpire I hated catchers who moved late or moved all around right before the pitch…instead of focusing on the pitch you are concerned with the catcher “jumping” into your field of vision and blocking the pitch.
I’m gonna keep a close eye on your “theory” from now on…I am able to see that “event” from a very closeup view.
At least the games I go to will hold my attention a little better as the last few home games have been boring and depressing to say the least.
Good job!!
Great rant, Jaredean. Wish the Monforts felt the same way. In defense of the team, playing for Jim Tracy wouldn’t light any fires under me either. In fact, it would extinguish them. I bet Kevin Millwood is still celebrating this morning.
Interesting comment on the catching. Picking up fr the lineup string, how about all these passed balls + errors by the Cs? The defense we keep trusting will stabilize continues to rot.
Now on Scutaro, the guy is leading the majors in bonehead plays. Did he have a history of this or are the Rockies just bringing out the best in him? Grab some bunch, meat. Time to roll w/ EY at 2B. We’ll trade ye to a contender in July Scuts.
Bench. Blew my tag-line…
What I’m tired of is JT throwing someone under the after every game. Not that they don’t deserve it, but keep it in house. Why doesn’t he mention how badly he managed on Thursday? I’m sure this act gets old with the players, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they already have lost respect of him.’
I turn off the TV now and refuse to watch the post game JT locker room – since he has officially reached the point of desperation and it really isn’t very much fun to watch anymore.
When we look back how has all this happened from after 2009 expectations were high and for good reason we had a young and hungry team but each following season we have become worse and worse, how has this happened. I do feel really confident that if the tracy , O’Dowd and the pitching coach go we will be a decent team, I have a real strong gut feeling about it.
So do I.
Interesting comment by Buster Olney of ESPN on his blog this morning:
“The Rockies had another rough night. They have the feel of a team headed for change.”
Has he heard something is brewing? Is the change involving players or coaching staff? Hmm.
Thank goodness I missed this one. From last night’s game chat:
Q. Have we hit bottom?
A. (from Trip): no, that will come tomorrow.
Well said.