Yohan Flande pitches well, Rockies still lose

Yohan Flande pitched well for the Colorado Rockies on Monday night in their game against the Chicago Cubs.

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If I told you that was going to be the case before this game ever started, you would have started your plans for an ever-so-modest celebration of a rare Rockies’ victory. That sentence by itself should be a sure sign that your team won. Yet hat is what happened, and the Rockies still lost 4-1 in Chicago.

Getting a good pitching performance from Yohan Flande, with no disrespect intended to the well-liked journeyman, is like stealing money. It’s like having Eli Manning throw no interceptions or having Carmelo Anthony play defense; it’s something you never expect to happen, so when it does, your team probably has a good chance to win.

Flande is not a big league starter. To say he is a fringe big league starter is charitable, and he would likely be overwhelmed from time to time down in Triple-A. His poise and command of the moment are to be admired, but his lack of talent in comparison to proven big league pitchers is simply lacking.

Flande handed the game to the bullpen after going 6.2 innings, allowing two runs, and registering an unfathomable eight strikeouts.

I could tell you that the bullpen proceeded to gag away more runs, but that won’t surprise you and it is perhaps illustrated more effectively with this screenshot anyway.

I would like to direct your attention to the ERA column of that picture, without further comment.

Of course the Rockies should reasonably be able to score more than four runs and win in support of Flande and his colleagues in the bullpen. That obviously did not happen, with little noise to speak of and a few key strikes along the way. As far as the impact injuries have had on this season, they are easiest to digest when it comes to the lineup: this offense can legitimately score runs when people are healthy, but boy are they bad when they aren’t.

Proposed mantra for the season: “How is there still nobody out?”

Alternative proposed mantra for the season: “How is Charlie Culberson in the starting lineup again?”

The Rockies continue their series against the Cubs on Tuesday night with Jorge De La Rosa on the mound opposite Edwin Jackson. For the sake of the Rockies and De La Rosa both, here’s hoping it is a successful final showcase before this week’s trade deadline.

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