Christian Friedrich followed Alex White’s Sunday performance with a gem of his own, allowing no runs and four hits over seven innings to stifle the Arizona Diamondbacks Monday evening at Chase Field in Phoenix. Matt Belisle navigated a Gerardo Parra lead-off double in the eighth and Adam Ottavino dispensed-of Arizona on one hit in the ninth for the Colorado Rockies’ first shutout of 2012, 4-0. The game took a brisk 158 minutes to complete.
Friedrich struggled a bit early, issuing his only two walks and a double by red-hot Paul Goldschmidt to load the bases in the first. After a mound visit from Colorado pitching coach Bob Apodaca he retired Jason Kubel on a fly ball to center fielder Dexter Fowler to end the inning. In the sixth Aaron Hill led-off with a double and moved to third on a Justin Upton ground-out, but Friedrich struck-out Goldschmidt and Chris Young to quash the threat.
The Rockies scored early. The scorching Fowler led-off with yet another triple and scored on shortstop Marco Scutaro’s sacrifice fly. They added two more in the second when Todd Helton led-off with a double, moved to third on a Jordan Pacheco single and scored as Wilin Rosario singled. Pacheco scored when Arizona starter Joe Saunders’ and catcher Henry Blanco’s crossed signals resulted in a passed-ball. Fowler has now hit in eight in a row, Helton 10, and Pacheco has hit in 17 of his last 18. Carlos Gonzalez singled leading off the third and has an eight-game streak. Rosario, who homered onto the swimming pool deck in right field in the fourth, has hit in seven straight.
Saunders started shaky for Arizona but lasted 6 2/3 to take the loss. Saunders was followed by Craig Breslow, Brad Ziegler, and Brian Shaw, who held Colorado scoreless.
The Rockies have now won seven of their past eight and have moved to within six games of .500 at 24-30. At the 1/3 point of the season they remain 9 1/2 games behind the Dodgers, who retain the best record in baseball at 34-21.
The Arizona series resumes tomorrow, with Colorado sending Jeremy Guthrie (3-3, 5.48) out to face Ian Kennedy (4-5, 4.26) in a contest of right-handers. Game time is once again 7:40 MDT with Root providing the TV and radio on KOA.
Rockies Aim to Rise from Desert
Colorado Needs to Take Success on Road
The Colorado Rockies gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about on the just-completed homestand and now it’s time to take the show on the typically unpaved, rutted and pot-holed road. Colorado stands even 15-15 at Coors Field but is 8-15 away from Lodo. They’re hitting .287 in Denver and .229 elsewhere. At least they’re pitching better away from altitude, 4.55 ERA v a major league last 5.43 at 5280 feet.
But times are good. The Rockies won six of seven on the homestand and picked-up 5 games on Division leading Los Angeles. Jordan Pacheco and Wilin Rosario have hit in six straight, Dexter Fowler seven, and Carlos Gonzalez eight.
Arizona is coming off a 6-0 shutout of San Diego and is 6-4 in its last 10, also making-up ground on the Dodgers. Paul Goldschmidt has hit in 12 in a row and Willie Bloomquist in five.
Colorado sends Christian Friedrich (3-1, 5.59) to the hill tonight against the Dbacks’ Joe Saunders (3-3, 3.61), two left-handers squaring-off. Friedrich is chasing his third straight win despite allowing 8 runs on 18 hits in 11 innings in the two previous victories. Saunders pitched extremely well in April, but fell-off in May until his last start at San Francisco when he allowed only one earned run in 5 1/3 innings.
First pitch is at 7:40 MDT. TV on Root, radio KOA. The lineups:
| CF Dexter Fowler SS Marco Scutaro LF Carlos Gonzalez RF Michael Cuddyer 1B Todd Helton 3B Jordan Pacheco C Wilin Rosario 2B DJ LeMahieu P Christian Friedrich |
SS Willie Bloomquist 2B Aaron Hill RF Justin Upton 1B Paul Goldschmidt CF Chris Young LF Jason Kubel 3B Ryan Roberts C Henry Blanco P Joe Saunders |
IN GAME CHAT
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Same biz w/ Chat as yesterday. Maybe I’ll figure it out before the week’s out.
When did the Chat fix itself?
Where is everybody the last couple days? Are my posts that bad? Noted above, we have reached the 1/3 point of the season. Someone smarter than me should post a “milestone” assessment of the performance to-date, like “starting pitching sucked, BP, esp Belisle, survived admirably, fielding sucked, + hitting sucked until last wk; field managing was astute + flawless, + of course general management was simply ‘the best in baseball.’ 2. Someone out there must be a draftnik. How about… Read more »
Baseball draft doesn’t do much for me. I think the Orioles did great.
Gotta admit I agree. Seems like something we should cover, though.
Good times seem like no one needs to post, bad times, we all need our soap box and pound of flesh. I think your posts have been great! Keep it up. How about Pacheco? I know he’s not getting the cool stats like HRs or triples, but he is putting up a ton of good at bats and getting some important hits, getting on base, and now his defense is improving. Keep it up, Jordan. Also, Rosario has to be… Read more »
Thanks, Prog, you are right of course. I’m hoping to have time to take myself up on the top challenge above this afternoon, and to me THE key to the turnaround has been Pacheco. When he returned he took that job by the nuts and has been lights-out, even defensively. Pretty rough at first, but I think now we’re starting to see he’s not a defensive basket case, and looks like he has some actual skills that are improving the… Read more »
Prog, I too have been thinking about who the Rox candidates for ROY would be. Rosario and Friedrich certainly are in the mix, but let’s not forget Pacheco, he’s also a rookie. And if DrewPo comes up and has a solid second half he can also warrant some votes. The bottom line any of these guys would have to be head and shoulders above Bryce Harper to win it because we all know that he will get all the pub… Read more »
Good job, Cisco. Thanks for stepping-up on the draft!
I think Pacheco is the real deal; you can tell by looking at his swings. Game after game, the pitchers tried to bust him inside like they did to Ian Stewart but Jordan can easily pull his hands and still put the barrel on it and take it to right field. If it’s out over the plate he can yank it to left. He has the best swing other than CarGo on the team. He’s not been talked about often,… Read more »
RMH, yes on Le Mahieu as well. I believe he is up to a five game hitting streak, although I’d have to verify.
BTW does anyone know where you can find complete game-to-game stats for players? MLB does the “last 10,” but like yesterday I was looking all-over the place trying to track Pacheco’s previous streak and couldn’t find it. Finally one of the Chatty Cathies on the broadcast threw the 17 out of 18 in.
I’m trying to avoid thinking about how many games back we are and what the Dodgers are doing. My short term goal is to be above .500 by mid point. That means we need to go 17-10.
You’re doing a fantastic job, Jeem. I haven’t been posting because my enthusiasm has been curbed to amazing proportions. Tracy is still Tracy, DOD is still the greatest GM in the game, and Tulo is sulking because he’s not the leader he thought himself to be. We all know the Rox have to improve their drafts, and I was looking forward to getting a great prospect at #10. No, DOD has done it again. A quote from the Colorado Prospect’s… Read more »
DVR rocks. I speed through all of the commercials and I still bet I’ve seen each of those CenturyLink commercials 10,000 times.
To elevate the Nationals to a pedestal because they drafted Stephen Strausburg and Bryce Harper is as silly as it gets. These are the 2 most no brainer 1st picks in recent history. All 30 clubs would have selected them #1. The only credit the Nats get for those picks is being able to afford to sign them, not for the picks themselves. To say that the Nationals pick at 16 therefore is a stroke of genius because of their… Read more »
ROOT broadcasters were talking about 1st round picks last night. It is sobering that only one in five picks in the first round actually make it to the majors over the last 25 years. In addition, I’ve been hearing that this year’s pool is not very good at all. So if we struck gold on David Dahl good, if not so be it.
But their trades have been lights out!
Being a year of week pitching prospects, we don’t need to think that taking an OF prospect with the #1 pick is good or bad until we see if he signs. If he doesn’t, we get a compensation pick next year, which looks to be a stronger class to comb thru. That being said, if he is a Johnny Damon type, that’s something that doesn’t hurt the home team. He’s only 18 so we probably wouldn’t see him until he’s… Read more »
I was pretty impressed with Dahl’s speed running against a 5 star football recruit.
Jeem, No complaints from me either. You guys are all doing great work on this site. As far as the draft goes, it really is nearly impossible to rate any draft for several years. This isn’t like the NFL where we get to watch most of the players on Saturdays, then have them step onto the main stage a year or two later. Same with college BB. Much, much more time in development in baseball and perhaps even a bigger… Read more »
Tulo was apparently hurt in the May 30 game against Houston, the third game of the streak.