The Rockies avoided the sweep in Arizona Wednesday night as Jeff Francis once again performed the impossible: pitching for strikes.
To see a Rockies starter not only go six full innings, but actually do it with only one run, is a bit of a jolt.
But in a good way.
Sure, he ended up giving up another run in the bottom of the seventh, an inning not seen by a Rockies starter since stirrups went out of vogue, but that didn’t matter since it was only the second run of the game and more than enough to get the win.
Francis left with the very impressive line of: 6 IP | 5 H | 2 R | 4 S.
Both runs were solo home runs.
After the Francis Exit, Ottavino, Belisle and Betancourt combined for three shut-out innings of no-hit baseball, four strike-outs and one walk combined.
Dexter Fowler continued to hit well, starting the game with a lead-off triple and being brought home by a Scutaro sacrifice. They worked together again in the third to score another run with a Fowler single and Scutaro double.
Fowler finished 3-5 with two runs, while Scutaro was 1-1 with 3 RBI’s.
The good didn’t come without some bad, as a completely asinine statement by George Frazier during the game proved how out of touch the booth is with the paying customer. When Jeff Huson commented that the team was especially down after the loss yesterday, quiet in the clubhouse and a general depressed feeling, Frazier went on to say,
The team is one good start away from changing that feeling.
I’m sorry, what??? Has he been watching the same team we have? Does he honestly think that one good start will change the clubhouse into a fun place to be, losing season be damned? If so i think we’ve found our new team President.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | ||
COL | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 | |
ARI | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
The Rockies will head home Thursday and spend the day visiting Aurora shooting victims at the hospital.
Picking up on the Dex/EYJ combo fr the chat: that is a simple fix. Dex just needs to change his look. Drop the gangsta pants + go with the stirrups like EY. Instant quickness + aggression.
“The team is one good start away from changing that feeling.”
Makes me wonder if Dickie Monfort has a red phone in the broadcasting booth ala George Steinbrenner to keep the crew spouting the company line. Glad I’m watching the bloodletting on the non-Rockies feeds and miss all the Rox propaganda.
Congrats to Francis, our ace one again. And how about that Scutaro? Keep this up and he may escape the asylum yet.
Scutaro is playing like he is being scouted…which he is…
For this week only, his name is Marco Scout-aro.
Tom Verducci speculates that Franics may be one of the best pitchers on trade block. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/tom_verducci/07/27/starting-pitchers-trade-deadline/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t12_a0
Frankly if we got something good for him AND we can sign him for next year and beyond in the off-season I wouldn’t mind that at all. Toronto (I believe) has some young, talented arms.
1st time I’ve heard Jeff Francis mentioned. The again, typically, Verducci is not exactly a Rockies kind of guy. I think I will stick with Tracy Ringolsby’s outlook.
What’s Tracy’s outlook?
Hey Mikeraysfan, I noticed you and I think Miketober often throw out references to articles or opinions as if we’re all familiar with them, personally, it would help me if you link to them or at least expand upon it a bit.
I’d appreciate it for sure and might help some discussion to flow if we knew what you were talking about.
Sorry should not have directed the comment to specific people, should have just said in general it would be nice for links and such from everyone when referencing an article or opinion that may not be known by the majority of readers.
Maybe it is a mike thing 🙂