Drew Pomeranz will be on the mound for the Rockies tonight as the team begins the first of three against LA, before heading to San Francisco to play the Giants for three. It will be hard for the team to play worse during the 6-game, 7-day road trip then what just happened on their 9-game homestand that saw the team go 1-8. They were swept by the Reds and Giants and dropped the sandwich series against the Cardinals.
In the loss to the Giants on Sunday the Rockies tied a season-high by drawing nine walks, though the Rox left 13 men on base in yesterday’s loss. Colorado scored two of their 3 runs in the 7th inning or later. The Rockies have now scored 157 runs in the 7th inning or later in games this season, which is tied with Cincinnati for the most in the NL. Among NL teams, only Cincinnati (167 runs) has scored more runs in the 7th inning or later in games this season.
Jordan Pacheco, one of the very few bright spots this season, capped a productive homestand yesterday by going 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and 2 walks. Pacheco finished the homestand with a .371 (13-for-35) average, 8 doubles and 4 RBI in the nine games, all of which he started at third base. Pacheco entered the homestand with 11 doubles all season, and he now has 19 two-baggers this season. Jordan’s 19 doubles are now tied for the third-most among NL rookies.
Pacheco continues to pace all NL rookies with his .307 batting average this season.
Digging deep to find any sort of silver lining to the atrocious homestand, the Rockies as a team combined for 30 doubles in the nine games played. The Rockies are now tied with the Brewers for fifth in the NL with their 199 doubles this season. Colorado leads the NL in triples (40) and ranks fourth in home runs (120). Colorado’s 359 extra-base hits lead all NL teams this season.
Colorado and Los Angeles are playing the fourth of six 3-game series this season. This is the second of three 3-game series at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles swept the first series at Dodger Stadium 5/11-13. Colorado is 59-94 all-time at Dodger Stadium. The Rox last victory at Dodger Stadium was 8/28/11, which was the last game the Rockies played on the road against LA last season. The Rockies are looking for their first series win at Dodger Stadium since taking 2-of-3 games of a series 9/17-19/10.
Although this is quite a different looking Dodger team from the last time the Rockies met them. Since then LA has picked up Hanley Ramirez, Shane Victorino, Joe Blanton, Randy Choate and Brandon League. They also made a play for Cliff Lee and are looking to possibly pick up Zack Greinke. They also just DFA’d Tony Gwynn Jr.
Within the last week 20% of the Dodgers roster has been changed up, and some are questioning if there might be a bit of a “mesh issue” at first.
23-year-old left-handed rookie pitcher Drew Pomeranz will make his 12th start of 2012 for the Rockies tonight. This will be Pomeranz’s 2nd-career start against the Dodgers. He allowed just one run on 4 hits and 5 strikeouts over 6.2 innings on 5/2 vs. LAD.
For the boys in blue, left-handed pitcher Chris Capuano will make his 23rd start of the season tonight. Capuano is 5-3 with a 2.13 ERA (71.2 ip, 17 er) in 11 starts at Dodger Stadium this season.
ROCKIES LINEUP
EY Jr 2-2 tonite. Pooter, guess what? He’s now statistically an completely average hitter this year. Add seemingly improved OF defense and his speed on the basepaths … nah, I won’t get carried away.
I wonder if the reason for some many late inning runs is because so many games are so far out of reach that there is no real pressure in the at-bats. After all, they are (or at least were) one of the best in the beginning of games in scoring early when there really wasn’t any pressure. All year it’s basically been the 4th through 6th innings of hell.