Rockies Lineup – May 19, 2012: Help Us Christian

This series is a must-win for the Rockies, and that’s a fact. They have floundered in so many embarrassing ways lately that dropping a series to a team like the Mariners, at home, in interleague, is simply unacceptable. Of course, it’s also very possible.

On the other hand, let’s take a look at this pitching match-up. Christian Friedrich has been stellar since his call-up a couple weeks ago. He only got the call because of injuries and general mayhem within the starting rotation, but hey, you have to take whatever opportunities are given to you. And Friedrich has done that, going 13 innings in 2 starts, allowing just 2 earned runs, and striking out 17. That’s nasty. And he’s a lefty.

Of course, those starts were against the Giants and Padres, two teams with some of the worst offense in baseball. But don’t discount these performances by Friedrich. They came at a time when Rockies’ pitchers have been uneven at best, disastrous at worst, and we will acknowledge and salute any outing that results in a quality start, regardless of who the opposing team was. Plus, if he can do that against San Francisco and San Diego, there’s no reason to think he can’t do that against Seattle.

So what can the Rockies do against Jason Vargas? I don’t dare predict, since they are back in their 2011 habit of getting dominated by pitchers I’ve never heard of. But we did face Vargas once back in 2009, an outing in which he allowed 12 hits and 7 runs over 4 2/3 innings. So maybe it will be one of those games. Or maybe not. We’ll see.

Quite a few shuffles in the field today, but the only new guy in the lineup is Tyler Colvin. That’s fine with me, because we always seem to play better when he’s involved.

Marco Scutaro 2B
Tyler Colvin RF
Carlos Gonzalez LF
Troy Tulowitzki SS
Michael Cuddyer 1B
Jordan Pacheco 3B
Wilin Rosario C
Dexter Fowler CF
Christian Friedrich P

Seattle has a number of changes today, most notably Jesus Montero in for John Jaso at catcher. Montero has a big bat, so hopefully Friedrich’s been watching his film like a good pitcher.

Dustin Ackley 2B
Casper Wells LF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Jesus Montero C
Kyle Seager 3B
Alex Liddi 1B
Michael Saunders CF
Brendan Ryan SS
Jason Vargas P

First pitch is 2:10 MDT from Coors Field.