Mother’s Day, Historically Not So Happy For Rockies

Happy Mother’s Day to all those mothers out there who have done so much for all of us. But the second Sunday in May has not been successful for the Rockies over the years. Entering Sunday the Rockies had posted a horrible 7-13 record on Mother’s Day. That made today’s victory over the Cardinals the exception. Sure it is only one day out of the year but we should get Moms everywhere some better baseball.

So let’s ignore last year’s 11-5 Mother’s Day blow-out loss against the Dodgers and find the top three Mother’s Day games in Rockies history.

1. May 8th, 2005 Rockies 8 Marlins 3

Tulo. Image: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports

The winning pitcher was Jeff Francis. In this, his rookie year, he ended up with a very promising record of 14-12 on a team that finished in last place in the NL West and 15 games out of first place. But Mother’s Day was a different story. The Rockies faced a two time all-star in Al Leiter and a lineup that featured former Rockie Juan Pierre and sluggers like Carlos Delgado and Miguel Cabrera.

In the time before Troy Tulowitzki, the Rockies had a fair share of middle infielders rotating in and out of the lineup. On Mother’s Day 2005 Clint Barmes and Aaron Miles combined for seven RBI’s via the home run, including a grand slam by Miles.

Francis pitched 6.2 innings of two-run baseball, with the bullpen giving up just the one run in the ninth. That run was a Pierre RBI-single so I’m OK with it. Most impressive is the fact that Delgado and Cabrera were a combined 0-5. Way to go Jeff.

2. May 8th, 1994 Rockies 1 Padres 0

Who does not like a good ol’ pitchers duel? This game took place at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego and featured Dave Nied for the Rockies and Andy Ashby for the Padres. Both pitchers went eight innings and neither gave up a run. The only run of the game was scored by Eric Young Sr. and driven in by Mike Kingery. Sure it might be a little boring, but how often do the Rockies come out on top of a pitching duel, or even have a pitcher good enough to participate?

3. May 14th, 2000 Rockies 11 Padres 7

On the other side of the spectrum is a high scoring Coors Field game. But believe it or not the Rockies lineup did not hit a single home run while scoring 11 against Giants starter Livan Hernandez. This game was a show of outstanding overall team hitting, with the offense going 5-15 w/RISP. Jeff Hammonds, Darren Bragg, Mike Lansing, Tom Goodwin, and Brent Mayne all collected RBI’s, and the team also kept the pressure on the defense and scored three unearned runs on three Giants’ errors.

The pitching was nothing to be proud of (especially in a game where Barry Bonds did not make an appearance), but that’s something that Rockies fans should be used to. Scott Karl, the starter, only pitched 4.1 innings, while reliever Gabe White was credited with the win after a Mike DeJean blown save.

Besides it being a Mother’s day victory, it’s always a better day when the Rockies beat the Giants.

Mother’s Day notes:

1. Rockies manger Walt Weiss was an abysmal 1-12 on Mother’s day in a Rockies uniform.

2. Not surprisingly Todd Helton leads all Rockies with 19 Mother’s Day hits. Also not surprising is the fact that Rockies hitting coach and former outfielder Dante Bichette is second with 11 hits.

3. The Toddfather also leads the team with home runs on Mother’s Day with four. Larry Walker is second with three.

4. Coming into Sunday the Rockies had scored 26 runs while giving up 122, which is probably a good reason why they have only won once on Mother’s Day since 2006.