Colvin Still Rescuing Rockies From Being a Million Times Worse

Rockies 3, Cardinals 2

Thanks heavens for Tyler Colvin. Am I right? While others are still making contributions, Carlos Gonzalez with his average and Wilin Rosario with his home runs, it seems like Colvin is the one who consistently stands out with timely offense. He’s this season’s Jordan Pacheco, but without the time in Triple-A. Without him, I hate to think where we’d be.

So far Colvin is responsible for 5 of the Rockies’ 6 runs scored against the Cardinals, and all 3 of last night’s. He came to the plate in the 3rd with 2 on and the Rox down 2-0, fouled off a couple of pitches, and then launched one into the stands in right. Seeing as how the Rockies were unable to come up with any other runs, or more than 4 hits beyond that one, it’s safe to say that Colvin was the hero of this game.

Not so fast though … how about Jeff Francis? In order for the Rockies to win while only scoring 3 runs, the pitchers have to give up fewer than that, and most of the time that’s laughably impossible. But Francis turned in another fine start and even lasted long enough to be held responsible for the win. If only that stupid pitch count wasn’t in place, who knows how long he would have gone. In the 1st inning, he struggled a bit, giving up a single to Jon Jay and a homer to Matt Holliday, both on his signature slow-pitch fastballs. But after that, he settled in and only put 4 more men on in the course of the 5 innings he pitched. He also loaded the bases in the bottom of the 3rd and managed to wiggle out of it. It’s so great to see his confidence and composure returning. I feel so bad for him that this is the pitching staff he’s working with now, rather than the one he was a part of in 2007. He’s showing signs that he’s the same, but the team will continue to fail because nobody else is any good. I miss Jorge De La Rosa.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the bullpen, which pitched 4 scoreless innings after Francis exited to hold onto his lead. Rex Brothers got into a bit of trouble when he allowed 3 runners in 2/3 inning, but Wilin Rosario made himself defensively useful for once and erased Daniel Descalso when he tried to steal 2nd. That’s always good to see, especially since Rosario is doing such a poor job blocking balls in the dirt, and that’s costing us runs.

Well, it’s nice to know the Cards won’t sweep us. That’s something. And we haven’t lost 50 games yet.

Jeremy Guthrie returns to the rotation in tonight’s game. Oy.