Sometimes it's simple. To win a game in the World Series, the Rockies will have to start throwing more strikes. And hitting better. Easier said than done.
For a while last night I thought Ubaldo Jimenez was going to make himself a Colorado legend. He came in, challenged hitters, and kept the Red Sox guessing. Unfortunately, he wore out pretty quickly and began to lose command of his pitches. The Rockies pitchers battled all night, which was a refreshing change from giving up runs on walks.
The offense was about as inept last night as it was in Game 1, though it got off to a promising start in the first. How would the game have changed if we could have knocked in one more first-inning run? Like the number of licks needed to reach the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know, but I think it would have meant a lot. Yes, the Red Sox offense felt much more dangerous than our attack did, but they had a hard time pushing runs across last night, too.
That's about all I'm in the mood to say. Oh, yes, Matt Holliday. Four hits of any kind in a World Series game are pretty impressive. However, getting picked off first in the eighth was inexcusable. You can't blame him for the loss. Considering there were two outs, and no one else could get a hit anyway, he probably wouldn't have scored. But that really put a cap on this whole awful road trip.
Well, that and getting called a fair-weather fan at a church watch party. Pleasant. It didn't bug me nearly as much as the time in high school when someone called me a fair-weather Broncos fan. Yeah, that made a lot of sense. The whole school was chock-full of people who'd loved the Cowboys or called Elway a loser in years past. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them. Oh, well. What can you really say in that situation?
I really like our chances in Game 3, but do you think we can do enough in Denver? Can we still turn the Series around?
(Oh, and one more thing. Thanks for the tacos, bro!)
7 comments:
Round about the fifth inning last night - when Jimenez threw his third pitch behind a batter's head - a thought occurred to me: "This is the sloppiest pitching performance only to give up one run in post-season history." And then Lowell drove in a second run, and I knew the game was more or less over.
Our offense has been seriously anemic, especially with runners in scoring position. For getting the first hitter aboard so often, we certainly didn't capitalize. Only my disappointment in Holliday's laconic base-running is greater.
It's an interesting question about what might have happened had we been more productive in the first - I think if we had scored a second run, the game would have gone differently because Schilling is such a momentum pitcher. Had we built a more sizeable lead, he might not have found his groove.
As for returning to Denver, I like our chances playing against a Sox team with no DH in our home stadium. But to pull off the series we have to win all 3 in Colorado. Period.
Yeah, it was sloppy. I couldn't believe we gave up as few runs as we did.
We do need to capitalize more...and it would be a lot easier to do that if batters/runners could get past first base. That's why I'm hoping for some Coors magic. I love that our park is getting a World Series game.
I loved the poll about who the Red Sox should sit in Colorado. 47% say Ortiz. I think that means 47% of voters were Rockies fans.
Ha yeah I saw that poll yesterday too and had the same thought.
I'm nervous about Fogg, he hasn't looked too hot his last few outings. I really think the Rockies bats need to wake up tomorrow in order to have a good chance to win. That said, I think facing an over-paid over-hyped Dice-K will be just what the Rockies need to get back into this series.
In Holliday's defense, I have to believe that Hurdle was giving either a hit-and-run signal, or a steal signal, because Holliday is NEVER that far off the bag. I think they were probably trying for the hit-and-run considering Holliday's lack of speed. Do you know Mike? If he wasn't tying for a steal or the hit and run then I agree, that was totally inexcusable.
Blaine, I don't know, but that's a good thought. Hit-and-run makes sense there. Still, he wasn't very close to getting back and shouldn't have been off that far regardless, right?
Yeah, that's true. And what was with the retarded slide? Even if he hadn't tried to pull his arm back to avoid the tag, I don't think he was close enough to the bag to touch it anyway. Between that slide, and his slide into home plate in the play-in game I would say one of those coaches seriously needs to spend some time working with him on sliding techniques.
Just for the record, he was trying to steal.
Thanks for finding that out.
Yeah, I was definitely thinking of the Padres game, too, but there was no debate last night. He was out by a mile. Holliday's a very good hitter but sometimes it feels like his baseball instincts are a little off...but maybe I've just seen him in bad spots. Or maybe I was just spoiled by my main man, Mr. Walker.
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