MVN - Most Valuable Network

Rockies give up 17 runs… and win

For one night, it was almost as if the Rockies had never implemented the humidor.  Coors Field was back to being its goofy old self, that place where opposing hitters went to pad their batting averages and pitchers went to die, the cathedral of the marathon, four-hour game.  After Aaron Cook told all those whiners out there who complain that baseball games are too long to shut up, Greg Reynolds, Cedrick Bowers, Luis Vizcaino, and Jason Grilli reminded everyone that those guys kind of have a point.  Those four pitchers (I use the term hesitantly) combined to pitch six innings and gave up seventeen runs.  Reynolds gave up a homer to the leadoff batter, walked the second, hit the third with a pitch, and later in the first gave up a run-scoring double and a three-run homer, all of which said this was going to be a long night.  Reynolds was in the showers before it even came his turn to bat, leaving in the second inning having given up seven runs.

Cedrick Bowers came on and worked out of the mess Reynolds left behind in the second, pitched a scoreless third, and then the wheels came off in the fourth.  Bowers gave up five runs and left one heck of a mess for Luis Vizcaino, who allowed a run inherited from Bowers to score and then gave up one of his own.  13-4, Marlins, midway through the fourth inning.

Except the Marlins’ pitchers would have just as much trouble with the goofy, possibly non-humidored conditions at Coors Field.  On the evening, the Rockies smashed six homers, with Ryan Spilborghs and Matt Holliday hitting two apiece.  Holliday’s seventh inning grand slam made it 17-16, and after the pitching finally came together with Manny Corpas and Taylor Buchholz deciding not to join the run-allowing extravaganza, the Rockies won it in the ninth on a Chris Iannetta single.

The damage: The two teams combined for 43 hits.  That’s right, 43.  Of the Rockies’ 21 hits, twelve went for extra bases.  Ryan Spilborghs would have hit for the cycle if he had just stopped at third on his second home run.  I wonder if anybody has ever thought of that: if you hit it over the fence, and then stop at third, is it a triple?  Cedrick Bowers, in his first plate appearance in the major leagues (he still doesn’t have an official AB), walked and came around to score.  Bowers now has a 1.000 career OBP.

On the other hand, it’s becoming pretty clear that Greg Reynolds really needs to work some things out in the minor leagues.  While he’d had three quality starts in his last five entering this one, giving up a 7-spot in under two innings is not a way to inspire confidence.  And walks are still a problem: a guy who relies on control can’t be giving up 24 walks in 57.2 innings.  That’s just far too many.  While he’s shown flashes of being the pitcher the Rockies expected him to be when they took him with the number two pick in ‘06, Reynolds has just been so mind-bogglingly inconsistent in the majors.  The only problem is that if the Rockies don’t consider themselves contenders for anything, they’ll probably just let him try to work out his problems in the major leagues… which is nothing more than a good way to kill a kid’s confidence.

The other problem, of course, is that there’s nobody at AAA who I’d rather have in the starting rotation right now.  Franklin Morales’s control problems are just now starting to come back under control.  Jason Hirsh still isn’t ready to come back, either; the Rockies went so far to take him off the DL and just leave him at AAA.  And nobody really wants to see Glendon Rusch or Josh Towers starting games for the Rockies.  Hell, after Jorge De La Rosa’s most recent start, I feel fairly confident in saying that Reynolds isn’t even the worst pitcher in the major league rotation right now.  And that’s saying something.

Still, though, you have to appreciate any time your pitching staff can have a night as awful as the Rockies’ did tonight and still come away with a win.  And, of course, Happy Birthday America!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.