Monday’s First Pitch

Let’s do a quick weekend recap before moving on to Good, Bad, and Ugly.

Leading off…
Friday
The Rockies couldn’t get anything going against Matt Cain (not surprisingly), dropping a 3-1 contest to the Giants. The team only pushed across five hits in the game, scoring only one run. For the Rockies, Juan Nicasio had two doubles (you read that right – two doubles from Nicasio), and Todd Helton brought Carlos Gonzalez home in the fourth inning to put the Rockies up 1-0. Juan Nicasio pitched brilliantly again, making a case to stay in the rotation, but was doomed by two misplaced pitches. In the fourth inning, an RBI double by Giants rookie Brandon Crawford brought in Cody Ross, and a Cody Ross RBI double brought in Freddy Sanchez and Nate Schierholtz.

Saturday
Jhoulys Chacin pitched very well in a 2-1 win, the Rockies first at AT&T Park in seven tries, in front of a national audience. He went six innings, allowing only a solo home run to Cody Ross in the sixth inning. Troy Tulowitzki was on fire, going 3-for-4 with a run, an RBI, and a stolen base. He also initiated a very impressive daylight play to pick off Manny “Don’t call me Emmanuel” Burriss at second base, ending a threat that could have put the Giants ahead.

Sunday
Another day, another pitching gem wasted. Chris Iannetta homered to give the Rockies an early 1-0 lead, and Jason Hammel went 5 2/3 innings of no-hit baseball, but walked Miguel Tejada and Andres Torres before giving up an RBI base hit to Freddy Sanchez to score Tejada. Hammel worked seven innings, giving up just the one run on two hits. Matt Lindstrom came in, and uncharacteristically gave up an RBI single to Miguel Tejada, scoring Manny Burriss. Ryan Vogelsong continued his domination of the Rockies by going eight innings, giving up just the home run on four hits on less than 100 pitches. Brian Wilson came in, struck out two, and worked a perfect ninth, earning his 17th save of the year.

The Good
The Rockies offense came to life Saturday, and was good for nine hits and two runs. They would have scored more, but the Giants pitching was also quite tough. As of Saturday, they have 18 hits and four runs. Not horrible for a team struggling to find their swing, but there needs to be some serious work done.

Also good, Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. Both hit well over .300 this weekend (Tulo actually hit over .400), and the Rockies need both of them to warm up if they want to go on a run. We’ve said it for months – the Rockies will go as Tulo and CarGo go. Chris Iannetta and Ty Wigginton also continued their hot streaks. So why is this team not hitting?

The Bad
The Rockies went 1-3 for the weekend. They dropped two of three to the Giants, and lost two of three to the Dodgers. They’re now back in fourth place, Jorge De La Rosa had his Tommy John surgery Friday (which officially ends his season), and they roll into Petco Park, where like every other NL West park, they’ve struggled recently.

The Ugly
The Rockies let one get away when they lost Sunday. Jason Hammel went 5 2/3 innings of no-hit baseball before letting two runs score. Had he not walked as many batters as he did, the Rockies would have won Sunday, and taken two of three from the Giants. Instead, they limp southward to San Diego to face the Padres for three. Why can’t this team hit? When given incredible pitching performances, they let it go by not being able to hit.

On Deck
Today, expect your normal Monday routine – The Battery, the Matchup, plus this week’s installment of Minor League Monday, and RoxPile Power Rankings.