With three in and one out in the Atlanta fifth, and left-hander Matt Reynolds trotting in from the bullpen, Rockies broadcaster Jeff Huson remarked “All a ball-player asks for is an opportunity.” The Braves had just pulled even with Colorado, erasing the five-run advantage the Rockies had taken against Braves veteran Tim Hudson in the first inning. Guillermo Moscoso, recalled from Colorado Springs when Jeremy Guthrie fell off his bicycle, wasted a chance to replace Jhoulys Chacin in the Colorado rotation with a second listless performance, allowing six runs in 4 1/3 innings while serving-up 40 balls to his 43 strikes and surrendering seven hits and three walks.
The Rockies started strong. After walking Michael Bourn to open the game Moscoso retired Atlanta in-order. Then with one out in the bottom of the first, Jonny Herrera doubled and Hudson walked Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzski. Todd Helton’s ground single to right scored Herrera and Gonzalez. Michael Cuddyer’s liner to center scored Tulowitzski and brought Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell to the mound. Hudson regrouped to get Ramon Hernandez on a weak grounder, but Dexter Fowler singled-in Helton and Cuddyer with a soft fly in front of Jason Heyward to put Colorado ahead 5-0.
Moscoso gave back two in the third on a Freddy Freeman home run with Chipper Jones aboard. Freeman continued his assault on Colorado pitching with four hits in six at-bats. Moscoso walked the Atlanta lead-off batter for the third time in four innings to start the fourth. Heyward stole second-base, then got himself picked-off after several close calls at the bag. Moscoso got Jack Wilson to end the inning. Then came the fifth.
With one out, Michael Bourn singled, then stole second and advanced to third on Colorado catcher Hernandez’ wild throw. Jones singled-in Bourn and Freeman tallied hit number two, bringing Colorado pitching coach Bob Apodaca to the mound. Moscoso responded by throwing a wild pitch to Brian McCann, who then drove-in Jones and Freeman with a line-single to center. Reynolds came on and got Dan Uggla to ground into a force, but then Heyward singled and Eric Hinske doubled, scoring Uggla for a 6-5 Atlanta lead.
Colorado tied-it back in the bottom of the fifth on Herrera’s second 2012 home run, then both teams scored in the sixth to make it 7-7. Herrera continued his strong work when called-upon, going 2 for 3 and adding two walks in five plate appearances. Reynolds escaped a shaky sixth unscathed and Matt Belisle allowed a single in the seventh.
With Rex Brothers taking over in the eighth the Rockies began to flash some leather. Michael Cuddyer turned-in what may have been the best defensive play of the year to-date when Freddy Freeman drove the ball over his head to the wall in right-center. Sprinting to his right, Cuddyer took the carom off the wall perfectly, then turned and fired a strike to Herrera at second, nailing Freeman has he slid to the plate side of the bag. It wasn’t that the play was spectacular and it wasn’t that the play was difficult. What it was was simply elegant.
Then in the tenth, with Bourn, who had doubled, on second and Jones on first, Helton dove to his left on a screamer down the first base line by Freeman, snagging it and giving Josh Roenicke room to wiggle out of the jam. In the eleventh Wilin Rosario made his first appearance as a professional at third base and the ball quickly found him. Tyler Pastomicky had pinch-hit for Atlanta reliever Chad Durban and singled, scoring when Hinske delivered the two-run shot to right that proved the coup-de-gras. After SS Wilson flew-out, Matt Diaz ripped a drive down the third base line. Deep behind the base, Rosario fielded the shot with his back to the plate, then leaped and threw high across the diamond to Helton, nailing Diaz by half a step.
Alas, it went for naught as the Rockies rallied to get one back in the bottom of the inning, but finally fell short.
The two teams tee it up again tonight, with Atlanta’s Mike Minor facing Colorado’s Jamie Moyer at 6:40 pm MDT. TV on Root, radio 850 KOA.
ROCKIES SET TO HOST ATLANTA FOR THREE
Moscoso to Face Hudson in Opener; Last Dance for Jones at Altitude
B-team scribe and sometimes Braves fan at your service this weekend.
The Rockies open up a three-game set tonight against the Atlanta Braves, looking to take 2 of 3 series on the nine-game homestand that winds-up Sunday. Colorado will send Guillermo Moscoso to the hill against Atlanta’s Tim Hudson. Both right-handers are making their second MLB starts of the season. Moscoso, standing in for Jeremy Guthrie, still recovering from the Cannondale incident that landed him on the DL, hopes to improve dramatically on the weak performance he delivered against the Mets on Saturday. Moscoso aims to remain in the Colorado rotation in place of Jhoulys Chacin, who was optioned to AAA Colorado Springs on Wednesday.
In his first start Hudson pitched five innings and allowed two runs while striking out six and picked-up a victory in his appearance against Pittsburgh last Sunday. Braves clean-up man and catcher Brian McCann is in the line-up despite taking a finger in the eye from teammate Michael Bourn while celebrating soon-to-retire 3rd-baseman Chipper Jones’ game winning home-run in the 11th inning against Philadelphia on Wednesday night. It’ll be the final series at Coors Field for the long-time Atlanta slugger.
Colorado is coming off its most dramatic victory of the season Wednesday against the division rival Los Angeles Dodgers, when Jason Giambi blasted a three-run pinch-hit walk-off shot, sealing a victory after the Rockies blew two leads earlier in the contest. Left-fielder Carlos Gonzalez is on-fire for Colorado, nicking Los Angeles for three home-runs and seven RBI in the just-completed series, raising his batting average to .310 and logging all seven of his homers since April 24. Manager Jim Tracy is going with Jonny Herrera in the 2-hole at 3rd base, with center-fielder Dexter Fowler, the Atlanta native, dropping to eighth. The line-ups:
Atlanta (15-11)
CF Michael Bourn
3B Chipper Jones
1B Freddie Freeman
C Brian McCann
2B Dan Uggla
RF Jayson Heyward
LF Eric Hinske
SS Jack Wilson
P Tim Hudson
Colorado (12-12)
2B Marco Scutaro
3B Jonathan Herrera
LF Carlos Gonzalez
SS Troy Tulowitzki
1B Todd Helton
RF Michael Cuddyer
C Ramon Hernandez
CF Dexter Fowler
P Guillermo Moscoso
It’ll be the first of only seven games for the Rockies against Atlanta, the three this weekend to be followed by four in the ATL starting Labor Day in September when both teams plan to be pushing for October play-off bids.
Sorry for the late post, group. Ihave no idea how to set-up Chat.
How ’bout it? Five off Hudson to open!
Does anyone else feel that 5 runs isn’t going to be enough?
Moscoso is definitely playing with fire
Shoot!! Need to hold them here in the fifth
Moscosco will not be replacing Chacin. Who’s up next?
As the sun descended, so did the Rockies lead.
Fricken a! Wheels, fall, off
We need to deal for pitching. Send Pacheco, Wheeler, Blackmon, out for some pitching. Maybe even Fowler.
The offense is there to compete, need to take advantage of Helton’s last hurrah.
Time for Tulo to get hot. He should be up in the 9th tonight.
Alright, Rockies. Lets play small ball if we need to! Get the 1 run and lets call it a night.
Raf looks great. Need to limit his innings a little though.
O’Flaherty hasn’t given up a hit to a lefty hitter all season…this would be a good time, eh?
Dangit! Why didn’t we try to move EY if we stuck him in? Needed more patience out of both Herrera and Cargo.
Yessir. Wish with the EY sub they would have let him steal either 2nd or 3rd. We’d be winners already with the sac.
Yeah I agree. Why put EY in and then immediately sac? It just gave up an out.
What the h*** was that? Chumper started for 1B before the pitch even crossed the plate. How did the ump not ring him up for that?
is it me or is this strike zone is shrinking
Great job by Roenicke there with huge help from Helton, who likely saved the game on Freeman’s smash down the line. Freeman absolutely killed Rox last year and has four hits tonight.
Cuddy’s pine tar was pretty far up the bat. Remember the George Brett incident?
did you guys hear that guy grilling JT for not stealing? LOL Must be pissed about not sending EY.
WTF with the Strike zone now?
I only saw 3 innings on TV, but that strike zone looked pretty bipolar to me.
Rosario for golden glove.
And here’s the arson squad, unfortunately.
Escalona has a reputation as a bad actor, with attitude problems throughout his career—hardly the kind of guy Rockies would keep, regardless of talent.
Rockies have three hits since the first inning. Hard to believe!
You know, 8 runs is a pretty good night. And you have to like the efficiency of 8 runs on 8 hits. But just like in the NY series, you give up 19 hits and you usually lose. It’s pretty good that they almost pulled this one off. One of those little fist job singles like Pastornicky got in the 11th was all it would have taken.
Another very winnable game lost.
If the Rocks had won, the Braves would have said the same thing. Can’t win ’em all….
Agree with Prog,altough I’ve said the rotation was smoke and mirrors since ST.Start exploring trades for a starter now.We still have a ton of OF at AAA/AA.Colvin looks like the real deal so trade Blackmon and/or Dex,Nelson,Pachecco.It’s scary to think what Moyer could do with a 5 run lead.More and more I look forward to his starts,even though I honestly believe he will melt down in the heat of July.At least you don’t expect him to walk the lead off… Read more »
Rox take 5-0. Moscoso comes out and immediately goes 3-0 on the first hitter. That’s when I knew this one wasn’t going to be easy. I have no idea how Moscoso had a 3.30 ERA last year. I mean, I know it’s Oakland, and I know he was lucky by all the stat measures. But how a pitcher this crappy managed to be just that lucky is beyond me. I think I prefer Clay Mortensen. There’s got to be guys… Read more »
sooooo frustrating to watch, our starting pitching is awful we are not going to stand a chance at this rate bullpen is far too overworked, O’Dowd really think this is a legitimate starting rotation when will he get the sack he’s such a bad GM
Fellow posters… I was at the game last night and was taken aback by the number of balls hit VERY hard by the Braves and the location of pitches by ALL Rox pitchers. The Rox will NEVER be a .500 team if these stats continue. This is VERY distressing to me(and I’m betting, all of you). Batting Average Against Opponents(in descending order): Moscoso … .381 Brothers … .372 Chatwood… .333 Reynolds … .326 Rogers … .315 Nicasio … .313 Moyer… Read more »
I have no clue about really analyzing pitching other than knowing they fall behind too often, but also, they seem to let up on the 2 strike pitches too. I’m not optimistic there, but I hope you are optimistic about the offense and the determination late in games. I don’t think that part of the game has been smoke and mirrors. Still a chance to come out of this home stand over .500. I’m just grateful we as of yet… Read more »
Ed, I agree. We need starting pitching help. Now. De La Rosa promises to be an upgrade over Chacin (at least the Chacin of the post-ASB 2011), but we need at least one other reliable arm who can give us 6 inning quality starts. As far as batting average against: yeah, that looks really bad for some of these guys. But I’m going to give you the stat-head take on it. Let’s look at Batting Average Against on Balls in… Read more »
Nicely done AGB…
I certainly hope the “norm” returns for our pitching staff, soon.
I’m going to examine the games where our pitching staff has given up 12+ hits…I’m afraid of what I’m going to find. It’s not just the starters I’ve observed giving up a multitude of hits during those games but virtually the entire(there are exceptions, of course)staff “melting down” during the course of those games.
Hope I’m wrong…we’ll see.
I was only able to watch the last 3 innings or so last night and like other posters was kind of perplexed by EY pinch running but then not stealing. But I am more and more perplexed by Jim Tracy. I didn’t see the beginning of the game but somebody in our group told me were up 5-0 and then oops now only 5-3. Moscoso should be sent down and we’ll try the next candidate. This morning by paper was… Read more »
I’m sick of the wave. Is it really necessary? Especially when the Rockies are on the field? Rockies fans are way too passive. At times the freakin Braves fans were louder than the Rockies fans. The need for starting pitching shouldn’t be a shock. It is documented in previous threads, and not just by me, we have plenty of #5, 6, and 7 type pitchers. The Rockies ARE giving up way too many hits. The BP will be done by… Read more »
By the way, anyone notice Hammel beat Cook today? I bet OrangeRocks did.
Cook cut his left knee in the 2nd inning and got 11 stitches after he left the game in the 3rd inning. Sounds to me like Valentine made a really bad decision having him go back out for the 3rd inning. Of course the 3rd inning is when he got charged for 7 runs. I wonder how many of those runs were from inherited runners that Clayton Mortensen allowed to score? Hammel is doing very good this year. He is… Read more »