Morning Dump — Thursday, April 7th

Jason Hammel was not at his best yesterday. He struggled with command as he labored through five innings. But, he battled and held the Dodgers to four runs. It could’ve have been much worse. Fortunately for the Rockies and Hammel, Chad Billingsley was off all day. Billingsley was unable to find the strike zone and the Rockies’ hitters were happy to wait him out. They made the Dodgers righty throw eighty-six pitches in just three innings.

Clipped from: colorado.rockies.mlb.com (share this clip)

The Rockies won last night because of timely hitting (Helton’s first home run of the season and Tulo’s front foot 390 foot bomb), solid work from the bullpen (Franklin Morales), and their typical great defense (CarGo’s game saving catch in the ninth). In the end, a sweep is a sweep. I don’t care if it was just two games. The Rockies have a two game lead in the season series and they are in first place. Bring on the Pirates.

Ubaldo is on the DL because of this cuticle issues. He will likely come off on April 17th. It’s never a good thing when your ace goes on the DL, but this is as benign as it gets. Dave Kreiger discusses their pitching depth. Greg Reynolds has been called up and will make a start Saturday in Pittsburgh.

The Modesto Nuts and Tulsa Drillers kick off their seasons tonight.

The Dump is short and sweet today. We’ve got an early day game and I need to get a series preview out. I’m the idiot Rockies blogger that didn’t bother to check the schedule and thought the game was tonight.

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