Rockies Lineup – May 18, 2012: At Least It’s Interleague

Hello! Whether or not you may have noticed, I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging these past few weeks, primarily because I was busy moving from New York back to Colorado. Now that I’ve safely arrived and gotten settled in the state I never should have left, I’m ready to dive right back into baseball. The sincerest of thanks go to my amazing staff writers, Hayden and Curtis, who covered things while I was gone.

So let’s see, what did I miss? Well, the Rockies are bad. Not just bad. Ten kinds of bad. Nothing is working that’s supposed to be working, and that’s putting it mildly. Do not adjust your television screens folks – that really was Alex White pinch-hitting with the bases loaded and the Rockies down 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th yesterday.

On the other hand, we do get to play an interleague series this weekend, and the Rockies tend to fare pretty well against The Other League. They boast a .498 winning percentage, better than all but five other National League teams, and just a teensy bit south of .500. Can they improve on that this weekend? Well, this is the Mariners were talking about. The Rockies haven’t played the M’s since 2009, when guys with last names like Beltre and Griffey were still on the roster. If we can’t take a series from the Mariners at home in 2012, then things are worse than we thought.

Of note tonight: Jordan Pacheco gets another start at 3rd after hitting his first home run of the season yesterday. Dexter Fowler remains in the 8-hole, where I’ve been saying he should be since he was called back up in the second half last year. Will Jim Tracy learn? Probably not, given his track record. But it’s nice to see Fowler there tonight.

Marco Scutaro 2B
Jordan Pacheco 3B
Carlos Gonzalez LF
Troy Tulowitzki SS
Todd Helton 1B
Michael Cuddyer RF
Wilin Rosario C
Dexter Fowler CF
Alex White P

Seattle is struggling this year, but that’s been the case for a number of years now. Of note is the starting pitcher they send to the mound tonight, Kevin Millwood, who wore a Rockies uniform in the second half of 2011. I liked Millwood a lot and was a fan of re-signing him. I’m slightly more glad that we have Jamie Moyer now, but don’t underestimate Millwood. He controls his pitches and he makes adjustments, which is more than can be said for White. This should be an interesting matchup.

Dustin Ackley 2B
Michael Saunders CF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Kyle Seager 3B
Justin Smoak 1B
John Jaso C
Mike Carp LF
Brendan Ryan SS
Kevin Millwood P

First pitch is 6:40 p.m. MDT from Coors Field.