I don’t know what happened to our Colorado Rockies baseball team since the All Star break. The team, after having an extra day off, went on an 11 game road trip against Cincinnati, Florida, and Philadelphia. The team came back with 2 wins: 1 against the first two teams, and none against Philly. This is not a great outlook for the team. Some blamed heat and humidity, others blamed lack of Tulo and Helton. But while this happens, Ubaldo falters in his last 2 appearances, and in the last outing lasts only 3 innings and gets a loss. This is a very bad sign when the Rockies #1 ace cannot show his form he used to have. The road trip was the 3rd worst in Rockies history.
Now, this is their first game back home. Tonight’s opponent is the Pittsburgh Pirates. The worst in the NL. The bounce-back game the Rockies needed. And yet, it didn’t start like that. Huston Street took a ball to his stomach during batting practice and had to be rushed to the hospital before the game even started. Fortunately, he wasn’t badly injured and was released to rest at home. But even if he hadn’t been hurt, Street was a non-factor in today’s game.
Yet, today’s game was the first in a while I could watch it completely. (Yeah, I have work that hates the Rockies’ schedule.) And while I tried to watch it, the Rockies couldn’t give me the motivation to do so. Already down 2-0 in the first inning, the Rockies couldn’t produce… until the 5th. The back-to-back homers by Hawpe and Barmes tied the game. Hawpe at 1st was decent. Tulowitzki back in the game was good, though he was 0-4 and had an error. But Pittsburgh fought back, got a run in the 6th, and again a HR off of Beimel in the 8th.
What was the biggest disappointment was the lack of offense and brains executed by the Rockies. The Rockies were 0-6 with RISP. But the biggest mistake was executed by Ryan Spilborghs in the 8th inning. Spilborghs had a double easily, but pressed his luck towards 3rd, and causing the 1st out. There’s a reason why one of the cardinal rules of baseball is to never make the first or third out at 3rd base. And for Ryan, seeing that the play was in front of him, and even the 3rd base coach giving the stop sign, he should have known not to even try it. This is a clear mental mistake, and is more of the same mistakes this team has made in the past 11 games. There’s a time to play aggressive, and there’s a time to play smart. And this team is just playing like they’re desperate. The team is lost.
I no longer see the same Rockies team that we had in the first half of the season. Sure, there were injuries during this time, but the team managed to produce when needed. My team is lost. If anyone can find my Rockies team, the smart and productive team I had, please let me know. I’m offering a reward for them. Please contact 303-867-5309* with any information leading to discovery of the real Colorado Rockies team.
* Ok, that’s not my real phone number… but you get the idea.