Rockies Take Game One From the Dodgers

I don’t like scary movies. I don’t like violent movies. I don’t like slasher movies and I don’t really like thrillers. I don’t like feeling jumpy. I don’t like clenching both of my hands to my head, peeking through my fingers, prepared to cover my eyes at a moment’s notice. It just doesn’t suit me.

In college I wanted to impress a girl, so I agreed to watch Saw. It was a tough and grueling evening for me, as I cringed and turned away through the two hours. Somehow I made it through, and in the end it worked out for me because that girl is now my fiancee.

Watching the 7th inning tonight felt like watching Saw. Matt Kemp came up with the bases loaded, his team behind the Rockies by a score of 5-2, and nobody out. The unpredictable Esmil Rogers had just walked Mark Ellis, which did not exactly inspire confidence. In the midst of a long at-bat, he hung a slider to Kemp that looked like it was destined for the concourse, but somehow it was only harmlessly fouled back. And then, after what felt like a torturous 20 pitch at-bat…strike 3! Each pitch of that at-bat, and then the next one which pinned Rex Brothers against Andre Ethier, I held my hands up to my head, peeking through my fingers, in preparation for something terrible.

Brothers went on to strike out Ethier, and I started to think I might be able to relax a little. But then Don Mattingly forced Jim Tracy’s hand by sending up Juan Rivera as a pinch hitter. Yikes! But after I nervously watched him pop up weakly to Troy Tulowitzki, it was finally safe. It was over, and like the night I watched Saw, things had somehow turned out just fine.

Say this about the Rockies this season; they aren’t predictable, at least not in terms of the typical ebbs and flows of games. When Todd Helton electrified Coors Field Sunday afternoon, it felt all but inevitable that the Rockies were headed for a dramatic victory. They lost. Tonight, when Matt Kemp and his video game statistics came to the plate with the bases loaded and nobody out, it felt like the Dodgers were a lock to win. I don’t think we could have even blamed the bullpen if they had gotten roughed up in that situation.

It turned out that the men from the pen were the heroes in a well rounded victory. Troy Tulowitzki delivered a key RBI double early, Carlos Gonzalez stayed hot, and the team manufactured runs when they had to.

Let’s hope the Rockies continue to do the unexpected, as they face their arch-nemesis Ted Lilly tomorrow night.

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