Rockies Open Homestand With Victory Over Giants

The Rockies were finally able to defeat one of their toughest foes in their 6-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants last night, getting to starter Ryan Vogelsong early and protecting that lead from wire to wire.

Colvin started the game off right last night in Denver. Image: Chris Humphreys-US PRESSWIRE

The approach used by the Rockies’ hitters early in this game was sorely lacking on their most recent road trip when their bats went to sleep. Tyler Colvin started by using the big part of the field with a lead-off double, only to have Josh Rutledge do the same thing with an opposite field warning track double of his own. Hopefully the entire Rockies lineup looks at the tape of those swings and remembers it tonight against Madison Bumgarner, who will toy with them if they try to get pull-happy.

Beating Vogelsong is no small accomplishment for this team, given the fact that he was 5-0 in his career against the Rockies with a sub-2.00 ERA. This should be qualified with the mention of the fact that Vogelsong is having a woefully bad season, but it is still nice to see this young lineup get to him. To truly exorcise the demons of playing against the Giants, they need to get a shot at the otherwise-mediocre and always-overpaid Barry Zito.

There were two unique made-for-the-highlights moments in this game. The first was Alex White‘s home run off Vogelsong, which upon further review it looks like he was pretty sure about. Usually the pitcher is as surprised as anybody else when he hits one out, but it looked to me like White pretty much started his trot right out of the box.

Secondly, Jim Tracy earned another ejection on another terrible call, this time a “phantom tag” by former Rockies great Marco Scutaro in what was called a double play on the field. I will state again what I have said before: Tracy’s form when he argues with the umpires is excellent. Bugged out crazy eyes, big hand gestures, lots of profanity, and lots of yelling after the actual ejection. The Rockies might not lead the league in much, but Tracy has them up high in terms of the overall quality of their arguments with the umpires.

The Rockies will try to beat the first place Giants at home again tonight, with Jhoulys Chacin going opposite Bumgarner.