The Colorado Rockies are sending right-hander Tyler Chatwood (3-2, 4.28) to the mound this evening to match-up with Nathan Eovaldi (3-8, 4.28), also a righty, of the Florida Marlins in a 6:10 pm MDT start at Coors Field in Denver. The Rockies look to make it 5 out of 6 on the current seven-game homestand that wraps-up Sunday afternoon before a trip to New York, as they aim to take 3 of 4 from Miami. Colorado’s 4-game winning streak came to an end Friday evening when the Marlins’ John Buck drove home Donovan Solano with a sixth inning double.
Josh Roenicke had come-on in relief of Jeff Francis for the Rockies with a 5-4 lead and proceeded to serve-up a 474 foot rocket to Giancarlo Stanton on an 82 MPH cutter. Solano followed with a triple into center-field and after Roenicke retired third-baseman Gil Velasquez, Buck smacked the liner to right that doomed Colorado. It was Roenicke’s third consecutive shaky appearance in a break-out year for the 30 year old, whose 72 2/3 current innings are just short of his career high 78 1/3. The Rockies were unable to tally any more, but Eric Young Jr and DJ Le Mahieu continued their hot streaks with 2 hits each. Shortstop Josh Rutledge returned to the lineup with 2 hits and 2 runs scored, and catcher Wilin Rosario had 2 RBI singles in the 6-5 defeat.
Chatwood pitched well Tuesday against the Brewers, surrendering one earned run on 4 hits in six innings, and walking none on 77 pitches. Since his return from Tulsa he’s improved his ERA by nearly
2 1/2 runs. Eovaldi, obtained from the Dodgers in the Hanley Ramirez trade, is 2-2/4.67 in four starts with Miami. He lost to the Phillies on Monday when Cole Hamels shut-out the Marlins 4-0, giving-up 2 earned runs in five innings on 8 hits.
It’ll be a cool summer night out at the old ball park, with temperatures dropping from 77° F at game time down into the 60′s by 9 pm, with 28% relative humidity and winds out of the east-northeast at about 7 MPH. ROOT Sports will have the TV broadcast with radio on KOA 850 am.
Michael Cuddyer returns to Colorado MFL Jim Tracy’s line-up at 1st-base. Carlos Gonzalez (Grandfather, Venezuela) is on the bereavement list as Young slides over to left and Tyler Colvin is in right-field. Charlie Blackmon has been called-up from Colorado Springs. Jordan Pacheco is back at third. Miami’s Ozzie Guillen is sitting pat except for swapping Rob Brantly in for Buck at catcher.
Hey Everybody, I’m looking for some help. I don’t know about you guys, and I don’t know how parochial this site’s supposed to be, but I’m ready for some Pennant Races! So on Labor Day I plan to post a column summarizing the contenders, their chances, and the match-ups to come in September.
So whoever follows a hometown (or whatever) team that’s in contention please send me an email with the skinny on your squad. jmiller4955@gmail.com. So OrangeRocks how about the low-down on the Orioles, and MikeRaysfan I’m sure you’ll be in with the Rays’ story. I’m pretty up on the Tigers and Braves myself, but that leaves the Yankees, White Sox, Rangers, A’s and Angels in the AL, then the Nats, Reds, Pirates, Cards, Giants, Dogs and D’backs in the NL.
Notably all the teams listed have plus .500 records (and no others do), and only the Angels (surprisingly) and World Champs are out-of-it by my measure (which is 7 games). But since there’s two weeks to Labor Day I’m including them all.
So please chime-in or risk getting my uninformed, tainted take. THANKS!
Jeem, I am happy to help out, however reading your list of contenders was kinda depressing. Why should mid-low market clubs like the Rays, A’s, Pirates, Reds, D’backs and Orioles (let alone the long suffering Nats) be so darned competitive and still playing meaningful games in 2012, while our local nine is now setting its sights on 100 loses?
There are easily two common pieces with most of these clubs that for the most part have struggled just like our Rockies in recent years – CHANGED & IMPROVED MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION (new Rockie slogan). I am not going to get on my soapbox yet again about MFL and BIB – but dang this is just so darn obvious and seriously depressing right now.
Oh BTW next year I am making plans to actually come out of the closet (taking the well worn bag off my head) and attending the RoxWalkOoff Coors Field gathering. I have started saving for the beer already!
Picking-up the trail from the earlier thread, I thought the ROOT broadcast (sorry Marc) hit new lows last night. It struck me, however, that the marketing slant was just what Mr Frei was pitching in his column several weeks ago that got me in hot water: the broadcast was not so much about the game as it was about what a fun time it is to be at the game. Including for babies.
So head on out to the old ball park tonight and drop a couple hundred bucks so Mr M can save up for Dex’s Boras’ Bonanza!