Today’s regularly scheduled rain delay amounted to 1:11, but once the clouds parted there was nothing but sunny skies for the Rockies in a 10-5 domination of the Miami Marlins. It is night and day what happens when a starting pitcher comes in and does the job, and the pressure gets put on the opposition starter.
Chris Rusin was fabulous, throwing over 67% strikes in going 7 solid innings and giving up 2 runs. He recorded 8Ks, four of which were Giancarlo Stanton, who didn’t actually show up until the 9th on Rafael Betancourt (more on that later).
David Phelps got hammered right out of the gate. Blackmon singled, LeMahieu singled, and Arenado tripled for an instant 2 run lead. Hits kept coming, with a Rosario single and McKenry triple for 2 more runs. Rosario drove himself in in the 3rd.
In the 4th, the Rockies poured it on – started by Rusin with a drag bunt for a hit. Blackmon singled, LeMahieu singled, and CarGo launched a 3-run HR. Phelps was done, refusing to make eye contact with Jennings as he handed him the ball. (That doesn’t look like it’s going very well.) Rosario greeted Andre Rienzo with another blast, upping the lead to 10-2.
Rusin turned it over to a clean inning from Kahnle in the 8th. Betancourt ran into massive trouble in the 9th, giving up a triple to Hechavarria, a single to Gordon, a double to Stanton, a single to Baker, another to Ozuna, and finally getting out of the inning with 3 runs scored. A win is a win.
From our pre-game:
Arenado got the big daytime hit right away.
CarGo is hitting best from the #4 spot, and went 2-for-4 hitting the ball hard 3 times including the HR.
Rosario delivered, 3-for-5 with the 2 HR
Rusin looked in command all day, kept the bat out of Stanton’s hands, and gave most of the pen a rest.
Phelps did not enjoy his trip to Coors, and doesn’t appear to like Jennings even a little bit.
All in all, a 17-hit assault is easy to like.
So, is it a no-brainer that we pencil Rusin into Lyle’s spot in the rotation and leave Gray in AAA for the moment? Love seeing the bats go off. And love the thought that some AL GM for a team in the hunt for a playoff spot is right now thinking about what he needs to give up to get Rosario. And CarGo is heating up, so if he can get on one of his hot streaks, we can hopefully… Read more »
Good summary, Donny. On a side note, I questioned whether that bunt by Rusin was indeed a “drag” bunt. From what I can find, most people today refer to a drag bunt as any bunt where the batter has wheels in motion as opposed to squaring up and not moving until after the ball has been struck. Back in the day, a drag bunt was always up the first base line where the left-handed batter is racing the ball towards… Read more »
Excellent point, Bob. It certainly didn’t fall into the Vince Coleman “drag” category, where a left-hander would nearly escort the ball up the 1st baseline with him. Rusin was definitely in motion bunting for a base hit, and did put it up the 3rd base line where Prado was giving him a lot of grass. Spilly called it a drag bunt on air, but I second your recollection of the terminology – and you hardly see it executed anymore.
Agreed.
BTW, did anyone catch the Spilly story on air?
Sticking up for Helton with a heckler behind the dugout at Shea, telling him Helton was one of the best ever. “So, hey, who are you? (reads back of jersey) Hey, Spiligous!” For 3 days he was Spiligous – “don’t even shower, go straight to the bus, Spiligous!”
Pretty funny.
I laughed out loud at that + also Goodman’s follow-up Mike Krukow story.