While it wasn’t quite hitting back-to-back home runs in your first two at-bats, I’m sure Josh Rutledge isn’t complaining about how his first game as a major leaguer went.

Rutledge, who was called up by the Rockies yesterday  in a flurry of roster moves, brought not only youthful exuberance to the field, he also brought his “bat”.  That would be “bat” in quotes to infer his hitting ability, not to be confused with his actual physical bat, which would be his lumber.  That, along with his glove and other tools of the trade, didn’t make it to Denver in time for the game.

I wore Tulo’s cleats, and his batting gloves, I used DJ LeMahieu’s bats and Jordan Pacheco’s gloves.

Thankfully he brought his raw talent to a team fighting to be one game above 30th in the majors.

Rutledge went 2-2 with a double, single, walk and a sacrifice.  He drove in two and showed his glove (well, Pacheco’s glove) is just as suited for short as any on the active roster.

Rutledge even got a “welcome to The Show” cream pie to the face after the game.  Presumably the shaving cream wasn’t his either.

Activating Hernandez from the DL also paid dividends.  He may have only been 1-5 at the plate, with an RBI in the seventh coming off his lone hit, but it was the little extras that made his return so welcome.  One of the intangibles would be his ability to call a solid game.  Christian Friedrich seemed to be in control most of the night (6 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 Ks) and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that his first win in a while came with Hernandez behind the dish.

One of the best Hernandez “little extras” happened in the bottom of the fifth.  Mayberry reached first on a deflected hit up the middle, one that could have been fielded, had it not gone off of Christian Friedrich’s glove, and Cliff Lee was up.  Lee was trying to bunt Mayberry over, so Cuddyer charged the plate and Scutaro snuck behind Mayberry, just in time for a riffle throw from Hernandez, perfectly on line and very un-Rosario like.