By the time Josh Rutledge came to bat for the third time in the sixth inning, he was 0 for 2, had struck-out, and made somewhat a fool of himself with a show-boating back-pedal on a first-inning Hunter Pence pop-up that fell a good 15 feet beyond him as Carlos Gonzalez watched with a “what the?” look on his face. But with one out in the sixth Rutledge lifted Madison Bumgarner’s third pitch, an 84 MPH change-up, into the left-center-field seats to put the Rockies on the scoreboard. Rutledge is emblematic of about all the Rockies have going for them in 2012, a preview of the next wave of young prospects to tantalize the Coors Field party crowd. Regrettably, none of them seem to be pitchers.
The web Colorado left-hander Jeff Francis had been weaving since his mid-June acquisition continued to unravel Saturday night. Francis delivered the third ineffective outing of his last four, surrendering 6 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks in a brief 3 2/3 inning appearance. Angel Pagan had grounded a single just out of Rutledge’s reach to open the game but was erased when Ryan Theriot bounced into a 4-6-3 double-play. Unimpressed by that bit of fortune, Francis proceeded to walk Melky Cabrera in front of a 420 foot Buster Posey moonshot into the left-center-field bleachers, moving the San Francisco Giants ahead 2-0 prior to Colorado’s first at-bat. Cabrera made it 3-0 in the third with a similar blow, further into the stands but pulled to left-field. Then in the fourth Francis struck-out lead-off hitter Pence, but former Rockie Marco Scutaro lined a single to center and moved-around to third when Brett Pill grounded one up the middle and advanced to second on a failed attempt to nab Scutaro. Shortstop Joaquin Arias then drove-in Scutaro with another ground single, this one to left, Pill advancing to third. The Rockies then nailed Pill at the plate on a fielder’s choice back to Francis, leaving themselves a chance to avert further damage. Alas, when you’re bad you’re bad. Pagan delivered his second single, a liner that plated Arias. Theriot next joined the hit-parade, loading the bases. Bumgarner scored on a walk to Cabrera, and Francis exited, toting with him loss no. 4 of 2012.
Josh Roenicke came-on for Francis and continued his good work, closing-out out the fourth then handling the fifth and sixth without notable incident. He ran into a bit of flack in the seventh when Pence reached on a Rutledge error and Scutaro singled, and was relieved by Edgmer Escalona (you remember Edgmer), who got lucky when Arias scalded a line-drive directly at Rutledge, doubling Pence off second and ending the threat.
Escalona had been recalled earlier in the day, along with first-baseman Matt McBride, who recorded his first major-league hit with a single in the fifth. Christian Friedrich and Michael Cuddyer were placed on the 15-day Disabled List, Friedrich out for the year with a vertebra stress fracture in his lower back, Cuddyer expected to return from an oblique strain. McBride helped the Rockies climb back into it in the seventh with a double that drove-in catcher Ramon Hernandez, on with the first of his two doubles. McBride scored on a Jonny Herrera single, bringing Colorado to within 3, but Escalona couldn’t sustain the fortune and the Giants roared-back with 4 in the eighth to push the contest out-of-reach, 10-3.
The Rockies answered with 2 in the bottom of the eighth, and matched a ninth-inning San Francisco run with one of their own, but fell well-short, losing their seventh out of eight on the current homestand. The Giants maintain their half-game lead over the Dodgers in the NL West, and picked-up a game on the Diamondbacks, who lost in Philadelphia 3-0. San Francisco will look to sweep when the two teams tee it back-up tomorrow afternoon, sending two-time Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum up against a yet to be determined Rockie. Game time at Coors Field is 1:10 pm MDT.
Ughh…why are we double-switching Rosario to 3rd base? His shotty defense outweighs any benefit his bat brings. Leave him at catcher, let him continue to learn the only position he’s been playing for a while.
BTW, nice recap Jeem! Even though I don’t comment much I usually come here to read some of the recaps and comments. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Aaron. It’s fun work. Wish there were wins to report on,
The Cinncy and Giants series show the great divide between the ROX and serious contenders.Extending some stats I asked for last week,and supplied by Bob in WV I believe—The Rox have now scored 6 runs 7 times and lost—–scored 7 runs 6 times and lost–and scored 5 runs 10 times and lost!!!! That’s 23 games=134 runs/5.8 per game and are 0 and 23 for there efforts! Honestly that defies all baseball and even statistical logic.
This loss was costly as it kept the Rockies magic number to win the West at 75. Any combination of Rockies wins and Giants losses totaling 75 will give the Rox their first division title. With 55 games remaining, MFLJT did note in the postgame that it’s tough when you don’t control your own destiny, but with the team’s bats doing so well it’s just a matter of time before the pitching gets going and the team makes their patented run at the playoffs.
Good news, though, as the magic number to get a wild card fell to 78 with both the Braves and Pirates losing last night.
Here’s the update:
9 games @ 5 runs: 45 runs scored, 81 runs allowed
7 games @ 6 runs: 42 runs scored, 61 runs allowed
2 games @ 7 runs: 14 runs scored, 18 runs allowed
3 games @ 8 runs: 24 runs scored, 29 runs allowed
1 game @ 9 runs: 9 runs scored, 13 runs allowed
That is a total of 22 games where the Rockies have plated 134 runs but lost them all by allowing 202 runs, an average run differential of 3.1 runs per game, up from 3.0 at the start of the month.
I’m sure I’ll be keeping this up the rest of the year as the numbers are so staggering and, but for the fact we all love the Rox, comical.
Heck, in the 5 games against the Cards and Giants that Jaredean had the “pleasure” of watching, the Rox AVERAGED 6.0 runs per game, but only won once by giving up 49 runs in that span. Don’t get caught speeding, Jared, as you flee the state!
I’m just glad we didn’t win all the games that I saw this week, or else I would have to stay because that means that I am the lucky charm!
Guys, it’s only going to get worse. Chatwood called up to make an emergency start today. Pomeranz will either (1) get shut down because he’s pitching like he’s hurt; (2) get shut down because even though he’s pitching well he’s hit his innings limit. Sanchez owes his continued major league career to Friedrich going on the DL. He’s been atrocious. So they’ll try to get through August with Pomeranz and Sanchez, but with expanded September rosters expect to see non-prospects like Brandon Hynick filling out the rotation. Actually, he really can’t be any worse. We’ll have JT using 9 pitchers per game with 16 pitchers on the staff. A while back I predicted a last couple months of close to .500 ball. Umm, I was wrong.
You’re all wrong. We just need to trust the system. Stay the course. Keep your eye on the shiney prize. You’re getting sleepy… sleepy….sleepy. Now when I count to three you’re going to wake up and this will all have been just a crazy dream. Wilin Rosario never made a fool of himself at third base. Jonny Sanchez never put in a Rockies uniform. The Rockies don’t have a losing record at home. And Dan O’dud was fired months ago.
Don’t you feel better?