Christian Friedrich pitched four solid innings for Colorado against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night. He entered the fifth inning having thrown 61 pitches, but immediately used 10 pitches to walk former Rockies Mike McKenry and Clint Barmes raising his total to 71. Erik Bedard sacrificed the runners to second and third on two pitches, and Alex Presley grounded his second pitch to Marco Scutaro for a force, driving in McKenry and raising Friedrich’s pitch total to Colorado’s self-imposed 75 pitch limit. Drew Sutton singled, driving-in Barmes. Andrew McCutchen singled. Friedrich bounced a curveball to Casey McGehee off catcher Wilin Rosario’s shoulder, scoring Presley. McGehee singled, driving-in McCutchen. 83 pitches, end of night for Friedrich.
As the hotly-debated 4-75 rotation approaches the one-month mark it’s worth noting that seemingly without exception, if a Rockies starter is going to lose it (Gopher-ball Guthrie excepted), it happens just as the 75 pitch limit is reached. Is the limit a self-fulfilling prophesy? Are the guys starting to pack it in as the limit looms? Well, it’s difficult to say because when a guy is pitching well, he’s removed once the limit is eclipsed.
The 4 runs the Pirates plated in the fifth put them ahead 5-2, and Pittsburgh went on to defeat Colorado 6-2 on a pleasant night for the 42,574 who sat-in at Coors Field. Bedard limited the Rockies to 2 runs (1 earned) in 6 2/3 innings of work. Jared Hughes, Chris Resop, Juan Cruz and Joel Hanrahan held-off the Rockies, who loaded the bases three times, including in the ninth, failing to score each time. Colorado put three on with two out in the bottom of the first, but Bedard got Jordan Pacheco to ground-out to Barmes. In the seventh with two out and Scutaro, Dexter Fowler and Carlos Gonzalez aboard, Michael Cuddyer flew-out to center. And in the ninth, again with two out, Fowler, Gonzalez and Cuddyer walked, but pinch hitter Tyler Colvin struck out to end the game.
The Rockies opened the scoring in the third when Scutaro and Fowler singled. Scutaro moved-up to third on a double-play grounder off the bat of Gonzalez. Cuddyer lifted a fly ball to left field that Pittsburgh’s Presley muffed, and Scutaro scored. The Pirates came right back when McCutchen led-off the fourth with his 22nd home run. McCutchen is hitting left-handers at an insane rate in 2012. He is 50 for 104 against them. Colorado took the lead back in the bottom of the inning when Rosario walked leading-off and scored on a triple by rookie Josh Rutledge. Then came Friedrich’s big adventure in the fifth.
A rubber game is on tap tomorrow afternoon at 1:10 pm MDT. Guthrie (3-9, 6.14) will oppose Pittsburgh’s James McDonald (9-3, 2.59) in a battle of right-handers. Television is on both Root Sports and the MLB Network, with radio on KOA 850 am.
Totally off the subject of last night’s game: there’s a very perceptive question in the Denver Post’s “Rockies Mailbag” feature, posted early yesterday morning, so I guess it would appear in today’s paper. http://www.denverpost.com/rockiesmailbag/ci_21088147/rockies-mailbag-michael-cuddyer-plans-trade.
The question comes from “Rick Lorenz” of “Durango.” I suspect Rick may be an architect, not only because of the question, but also because I worked with a “Dick Lorenz” as an architect 30 years ago at Skidmore Owings and Merrill. Rick’s question:
“The Coors Field outfield is consistently called ‘cavernous’ or ‘the largest in all of baseball.’ I would love to see if there is any correlation in outfield square footage to really being a hitter’s park. Fenway probably has one of the smallest outfields, but it is considered a hitter’s park. Where is the ‘sweet spot’ for outfield size? I’ve looked all over the web and never could find anybody’s square footage. Thanks. It certainly will lead to a lot of discussion.”
Troy Renck, handling the “Mailbag” this week for the Post, completely muffs the answer, as if he were Mitt Romney avoiding taxes. “The easiest measurement of outfields are the listed distances on the outfield walls,” Troy instructs. OK, obviously the distances are a component of calculating the square footage, but only one component. How much more area is in the Coors outfield? “I don’t have the square footage, but know what my eyes have told me over the last 16 years.” ‘And I love using the word “cavernous.” It has a great “ring” to it.’ Come on Troy, it’s a really good question, and while the data may not be readily available, certainly there are “CADD” (Computer Aided Drafting and Design) drawings of each team’s playing field from which the area differences could be calculated, not to mention from which overlays could be created to visually compare one outfield to another. I’m surprised Troy didn’t say “You know Rick that’s a really good question. Let me have an intern look into it and I’ll answer it in print when I’ve got the data.” But no. So we’re stuck with “cavernous.”
Troy goes on to assert, “The size of the outfield also wears down players as the season goes on. The number of players’ whose careers were shortened by playing defense there include: Larry Walker, Preston Wilson and Ellis Burks.” Wow. That’s a pretty bold unsubstantiated statement. I’m surprised he didn’t attribute the death of Darryl Kile to the Coors outfield.
Does anyone know if there’s ever been an analytical study of outfield geography? Ag? Cisco? CyberChip? Like Rick, I think it would be really informative to know the FACTS about how difficult our outfield is to cover, not to mention where the unique gaps are, not only at Coors, but in all the parks.
If Renck said that playing the outfield at Coors Field wears players down and shortens their career, he is just an idiot. The altitude may indeed have some very small effect (however once acclimated then really small) and in addition the size of the outfield would make no difference other than a few extra strides getting to the baseball a few times per game.
How does a few extra strides of running shorten a career – my thought is it might actually lengthen the player’s career by keeping him in better physical condition as he ages? Again Renck that’s just plain dumb to postulate such a stupid theory.
Right on.
So this baseball writer trash answers at least one question. When Dexter hits his free agency he will then have to insist that Boras get him a contract somewhere else, since continuing to play at “caverness” Coors Field would definitely (according to Renck) shorten his professional baseball career! What?
Jeem, there may even be a pic of the CADD hanging on the wall in the club level.
I am absolutely dumbfounded at the attendance at Coors the past two days. On Sunday I commented that the count for that day’s game of 25K plus was the beginning of an attendance decline for the rest of the year. Here was a beautiful sunny day with the very popular Phils in town and only 25K show up.
Next come the lowly Pirates to town and on a rainy Monday 35K show up. Yesterday the attendance was 42K. What in the world is going on? Did all these people come to apologize to Hurdle for running him out of town?
I guess I give up, with these many people supporting such a bad product, why should the Monforts be willing to make any changes? Why change something that seems to be working for them?
Ha! I forgot who commented on Sunday. You. When I heard the number I threw it in the post for your benefit.
I was there last night and I was astonished at how many people were there. It was only full for about 4 innings in the middle frames, but it was impressive. We showed up because we had to trade in tickets for a Cincinnati game we can’t attend so went down on a whim on a beautiful summer night. I suspect that’s why the attendance stays high.
Two baseball thoughts: Rosario just seems to get distracted and miss balls. I wonder if it’s technique or concentration. Friedrich seems to out think himself. When he walked the second batter in the .205 Barmes, I thought, oh-oh. And sure enough, it was his downfall. If he would’ve give them base hits, you’d say more power to them. But when you walk the 7 and 8 guys with no one out, you have asked for a big negative inning.
I vote concentration.
I vote concentration as well. This team is mentally soft, a reflection of their manager. I don’t for a second believe that the players are lazy or are trying to “zone out” but environment does make a difference. If it were one or two players, I’d blame those players, but when it is the every player on the roster its gotta be the boss.
I’ve seen a few of his where he turns the glove the wrong way or doesn’t square up right. Or simply he missed it.
In addition to concentration and technique it could also be that his reflexes and hand eye coordination just isn’t as good as other players. He might be more suited for another position.
I know growing up for whatever reason I just couldn’t play OF. I couldn’t judge the height and distance of the ball well. But then I can play IF because my reflexes were are good.
Maybe Rosario would benefit from a move to 1st base.
My sentiment in several previous posts.I also postulated it could improve his offense and prolong his career due to reduced stress on his body.
Wow. I did not realize that was called a passed-ball. Looked like a WP to me. Hit the ground about 3 feet in front of the plate.
Exactly. That was all Friedrich and not Rosario. I know the broadcast crew was yammering about the spin on the ball. I kind of disagree and think I saw something different.
The broadcast crew seems to yammer a lot, especially Drew. When it looks like the Rockies are going to lose they increase the noise. It has been nice hearing about the Pacheco twins playing third base for us, though…..
I would just like to add since we are commenting of the broadcast crew. Jeff H. makes my teeth hurt! I swear he must be in the hall for all the things he knows about and has done and people he has played with. It was very nice this weekend to have George and the radio crew to listen to for a change.
I loathe Huson’s voice. Drew is also grinding on my ear drums. I know a lot of posters don’t like George but I think he does a good job and I agree he was great w/ the radio guys.
Found this pretty funny, completely off topic…if anyone has been following the Ozzy/Harper Pine Tar Incident then you will love what happened…
http://miami.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120717&content_id=35098672¬ebook_id=35098684&vkey=notebook_mia&c_id=mia&partnerId=aw-6016354863062498979-996