Having just walked Colorado center-fielder Dexter Fowler to lead off an inning for the second time, Houston Astros’ right-hander Bud Norris took the ball from catcher Jason Castro, and as he stepped onto the rubber shook his head in disgust and as Root Sports’ high-third-base camera zoomed-in, muttered one of those words that rhymes with “luck.” Rockies shortstop Marco Scutaro grounded-out softly to third, Fowler moving up a base. Norris, down 5-1 and at that point just trying to eat some innings and minimize damage, got religion and intentionally walked Carlos Gonzalez after getting behind 2-0. With Colorado right-fielder Michael Cuddyer settling in at the plate, Castro picked-off Fowler. Except sorry for Norris, second-base umpire Jeff Kellogg saw it differently. With one strike on Cuddyer, Castro threw wildly to first attempting to pick-off Gonzalez. and with runners on second and third with one-out (versus a runner at first with two-out), Cuddyer doubled to deep right-center, scoring Fowler and Gonzalez. After a Todd Helton pop-out, Rockies’ catcher Wilin Rosario joined the hit parade, singling to right and driving-in Cuddyer. Norris’ once-stellar May was over. Rhiner Cruz came-on to face Jordan Pacheco. Rosario stole second and scored Colorado’s 9th run as Pacheco dropped a soft liner in front of Astro’s center-fielder Jordan Schafer. Norris, who had given-up just one earned run in his first four starts in May, surrendered 12 in his next two.
After Rockies’ starter Jeremy Guthrie bumbled through the first, allowing two base-runners after retiring the first two Houston batters, a recent endearing custom of the Colorado pitching staff, Colorado got the night off to a bang, sprinting-out 5-0. Fowler walked to lead-off, and after Scutaro singled him to third, Cargo sliced his fourth consecutive home-run over the right-field wall, tying a major record record held by many, mostly Hall-of-Famers. Gonzalez is now hitting .338 with 14 homers. Cuddyer singled and scored on a Helton double. After Norris finally retired Rosario for the first out, Pacheco, who has hit in nine of his past 10 games, delivered a ground-rule double that hopped the center-field wall to score Helton.
Guthrie went seven innings, four of them shaky. He surrendered a homer to left-fielder JD Martinez in the second. He allowed three in the fourth on a triple, double and two singles, then was perfect in the fifth and sixth. Houston’s last run scored in the seventh on consecutive singles by Schafer, Jose Altuve, and Jed Lowrie, Schafer scoring on a double-play grounder off the bat of Carlos Lee. Third-baseman Chris Johnson flied to center, ending Guthrie’s night. Matt Reynolds logged a 1-2-3 eighth, and Josh Roenicke navigated the ninth, working around singles by Matt Downs and Altuve.
It was a gratifying win for Colorado, which lost shortstop Troy Tulowitzski to the disabled list with a strained left groin muscle. The Rockies also said good-bye Wednesday to left-hander Jamie Moyer, who was designated for assignment. The 49 year-old Moyer had been a “feel-good” story for the Rockies, becoming the oldest major leaguer to win a game, score a run, and record an RBI.
The Division leading Los Angeles Dodgers arrive for a three-game set this afternoon. Josh Outman will replace Moyer, and limited to 50 pitches, will oppose Los Angeles left-hander Chris Capuano on Friday evening. Saturday Juan Nicasio will face-off against Aaron Harang on Saturday and Alex White faces Nathan Eovaldi on Sunday afternoon. An unlikely sweep of LA could potentially revive hopes for the Rockies, who have dug themselves a 10 1/2 game hole and are eight games below .500. Colorado travels to Phoenix on Monday for three against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Tonight’s first pitch is scheduled for 6:40 pm MDT. Root Sports will have the television with Jerry Schemmel and Jack Corrigan handing the radio broadcast for KOA 850 AM.
Tulo on DL; Rockies Look to Sweep Houston
Guthrie’s Competence on Line vs Astros’ Norris
Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzski was placed on the 15-day disabled list today and infielder Chris Nelson has been reinstated to the 25-man major-league roster to replace him. Tulo took an MRI this afternoon, and while the results of it will not be known until Friday, the Rockies decided to make the move irregardless. Manager Jim Tracy said the “the best-case scenario” was “trying to milk it for five to six days,” and consequently the team opted for a conservative approach. The move comes unfortunately as Colorado is just showing signs of shaking an early-season malaise that finds it 9 games below .500 and 11 1/2 games behind the Division leading Los Angeles Dodgers. DJ LeMahieu will start at second base tonight, with Marco Scutaro moving over to Tulowitzski’s spot at short.
Meanwhile, right-hander Jeremy Guthrie will try to demonstrate some sign of whatever it was made Colorado name him its number one starter back in April. He faces Houston righty Bud Norris (5-1, 3.34), who was having a superior May, allowing just 4 earned runs in 5 starts until lasting only
4 2/3 innings in his last start against Los Angeles. Guthrie (2-3, 5.31) allowed 6 runs (2 earned) on 10 hits in 5 innings, including 2 homers, on Saturday against the Reds at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.
It will be the final meeting between Colorado and Houston for 2012. With 3 wins over the Astros this week at Coors Field, the Rockies will take the season series win or lose, and look to sweep the Astros out of Denver on their last visit as a National League franchise. The lineups:
| Astros (22-28) CF Jordan Schafer 2B Jose Altuve SS Jed Lowrie 1B Carlos Lee 3B Chris Johnson RF Brian Bogusevic LF JD Martinez C Jason Castro P Bud Norris |
Rockies (20-29) CF Dexter Fowler SS Marco Scutaro LF Carlos Gonzalez RF Michael Cuddyer 1B Todd Helton C Wilin Rosario 3B Jordan Pacheco 2B DJ LeMahieu P Jeremy Guthrie |
Hi Everybody. Well you’ve got me playing journalist again for the next week. Jaredean wasn’t able to show me how to set-up Chat, so feel free to do so in this forum. Let’s go sweep!
Eyj at second damn it!
I either read or heard the other day the Rockies have decided he’s “just not a second baseman.” But that was on one of the same days the talk of him taking grounders there was going around.
Hey Cesar Carvajal we needed you last night. George Frazier called Altuve a Dominican!
Noooo! Seriously?
Same thing happened a month ago with Phillies 2nd baseman Freddy Galvis. Nothing personal against DR, i just think that It’s not cool when you confuse a player’s nationality.
Yeah, I wanted to bust him about it on that Toyota Talk thing, but didn’t know how to do it.
Originally, I thought it was neat that Tulowitzki went to highschool 15 minutes away from my school (though 8 years difference)…but I’m realizing its not really making me like him less or more.
I’m not sure I like American players less or more than any other players.
I guess to say, I’m not sure the topic of someone’s nationality interests me much. Thats not to say the announcer should get it wrong, just curious I suppose at the need to mention it at all.
George was just rambling about Jose’s stature, how even being such a small person some good scout tracked him down, but he said it was in the DR. I remembered Cesar’s first post of the year when he mentioned something like “Hey take a look at this Jose Altuve guy from my home town.” So I thought “no George he’s Venezuelan,” then of course I had to look it up. Then when I proved myself right I wanted to call him on it. This is all innocent stuff.
It’s a matter of nationalistic pride. To those of us living in the US, it’s not such a big deal because we have so many sports and entertainment available to us, which we should all be thankful for. But for so many other countries like Venezuela, DR, or Brazil where baseball or soccer is the only sport they actually root for, it is a big deal because they have a deep connection with their sports stars. I’m sure that if a soccer announcer mentioned that Messi is from Brazil, the people of Uruguay would take offense with that. They would want everyone to know that the best soccer player in the world is actually from Uruguay.
Yeah. Its an interesting thing. Maybe I’m just a ball of contradiction though, because honestly, I love the Olympics and hope to attend the World Baseball Classic one day. So not really sure why for individual players I don’t really care where they’re from. On a related note we talked about the multitude of Venezuelans on the team earlier in the year. I think the most interesting thing to me isn’t so much which place or players, but the frequency and what that suggests about scouting or relations or something or is it just coincidence?
You’re right!
I mentioned Jose Altuve in the first game of the season…
And for us it’s a big deal. Just right now Santana made my day, seeing him throw a no hitter that became the trending topic in Venezuela.
And to correct you Cisco, Messi is from Argentina, and to say he is from Uruguay is worse than saying he’s brazilian. The rivalry between Uruguay and Argentina is way more fierce than with Brazil.
Hey guys, chat has been added, just reload the page. I’m on the road listening to XM…so far AWESOME!!!!
Jeem, thanks for filling in. I’ll email how to setup chat on the pre-game posts. You rock!
Jason Hammel, 4 HRs allowed in Toronto. Accuses the Jays of stealing signs. Or is it just his run of luck ending and regression to the mean? Beware the small sample size!
Sorry for the late wrap-up. 2:30 am technological tragedy delayed post until this morning.
I go home for a few days and look what happens. The Rox have their 1st 4 game win streak of the season. Maybe I shouldn’t go to the game tonight.
Listening the the national talking heads can be amusing but, in general, they were right. The pitching is still a struggle. The Rox have now had 4 grand slams … only to be negated by the opposing team. I disagree with the “Coors Factor” crap.
Tonight is the BP vs Capuano. Should be interesting.
Group, apologies for error in previous issue of post. The Dodgers series is HERE. My bad. I knew the game times didn’t make sense when I looked at them.
Anybody else see Kiszlas article in the DP today where he is advocating moving Tulo to third? Still laughing at that one.
His job is always to stir the pot,which makes him generally unlikeable to me.However,I thought his arguments had some merit,especially the A-Rod comparison.Of course we have no one with even above average ability to take his place so this idea is probably some years away.
I admit I didn’t read the entire Kizla column. Saves me from heartburn. A-Rod moved to 3rd when he went to the Yankees who had a guy named Jeter at short. We don’t have a Jeter. And if I remember A-Rod had a learning curve at 3rd. Both Kizla and Woody Paige watch the Rockies every once in awhile and they think they an expert.
Questo