Game Notes From The Colorado Rockies’ Win Thursday

Apr 23, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Jordan Lyles (24) delivers a pitch during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Some miscellaneous notes from Thursday afternoon’s game between the Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres from Coors Field.

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Jordan Lyles pitched extremely well, and the Colorado Rockies picked up a much-needed win to split a four-game series with the San Diego Padres on Thursday afternoon in Denver.

The Rockies are now 9-7, with the five-game skid long in the rearview mirror and the chance to still have a very solid home stand with San Francisco coming to town for three games this weekend.

Here are the game notes and miscellaneous observations from the Rockies’ day game against San Diego, with Jordan Lyles on the mound and Daniel Descalso at first base.

• Daniel Descalso was a hero two innings in a row. OK not really, but he did come up with the bases loaded two innings in a row between last night and the first inning today. Both times, his at-bat ended in an RBI (this afternoon on a bases loaded walk). He’s no offensive stud, but you can’t hate the man for getting it done!
• Did Drew Stubbs strike out today? Yes. Yes, he did. With the bases loaded in the first inning! Great! Stubbs is struggling… badly. One smart note for Stubbs: with no outs in the eighth, and Rafael Ynoa on second base after he hit a double, Stubbs bunted him over to third. If you can’t figure it out at the plate, might as well get things going with a bunt.
• Speaking of Stubbs, what are the Rockies supposed to do? Nick Groke and some Tweeters (Twitterers?) debated it, but what really can you do with his contract?
• Coming into the game, the Rockies had only stolen five bases in 15 games, the lowest in the league (and two of those five belong to Michael McKenry!). Charlie Blackmon stole second base in the second inning. With the power in this lineup, stolen bases probably aren’t as important, but it wouldn’t hurt to be aggressive sometimes… right?
• The Rockies left the bases loaded twice in the first three innings, only getting one run. That’s tough.
• The Rockies ended both of those bases loaded innings with the pitcher, Jordan Lyles, making the last out at the plate. Lyles hit eighth today. Ironically, the pitcher hitting eighth (probably) burned the Rockies today.
• Corey Dickerson mashed a home run in the fifth. That’s three in two days. Pretty good for an injured guy!
• After having it happen only once in the first 14 games, the Rockies had a starter go into the seventh inning for the second time in two days. Lyles only threw 81 pitches through the first six frames.
• Lyles ended up tossing 6.2 innings, allowing six hits and two walks – and just one run – while striking out four hitters on 96 pitches (52 strikes). The outing lowered his ERA to 2.92, and gives him three quality starts in four outings in 2015.
• Weiss made a good managerial decision to remove Lyles after Justin Upton was announced as the pinch-hitter with two on in the seventh. In his career, Upton is 5-for-9 off Lyles with 4 RBIs.
• Weiss then made an… interesting move to make the eighth reliever (Scott Oberg) his choice to protect the lead, but Oberg struck out Upton and made Weiss look good. Oh boy, Oberg!
• Carlos Gonzalez pinch hit with Ynoa at third base in the eighth, and struck out swinging on a slider far off the plate against Padres lefty reliever Chris Rearick. CarGo had been given the day off to rest and break the slump.
• John Axford earned the save with a solid ninth inning. It’s his second save of the season.
• The game wasn’t on ROOT Sports in Denver today, so hopefully some of you had MLB.tv to watch the Padres broadcast team call the game. Just one man’s opinion, but I think Dick Enberg and Mark Grant make up one of the best local broadcast teams in all of baseball – Enberg is smooth, they are both fair without being homers, and descriptive without being annoying, and Grant does a good providing not-obvious color commentary.