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Monday’s First Pitch
Leading Off
Happy belated Father’s Day to all the fathers out there. Hope you all enjoyed your day.
The Good
We’re going to present this is bullet-form, since there’s a lot of good and a lot to recap from over the weekend.
–The Rockies took two of three from a division leader.
–The Rockies improved to 30-9 at Coors Field against American League opponents over the past 5 years, and 2-1 to start 2011 Interleague Play
–Ubaldo Jimenez returned to form to earn his second victory of the year, and got his first hit of the year – a two-RBI single – to help out his own case.
–Chris Nelson continued his hot streak, hitting two home runs in the three games against the Tigers, and putting a stronger hold on his grasp of the everyday second base job.
–Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki both continued to get hot. CarGo is hitting over .280 and Tulo his hitting well over .270.
–Charlie Blackmon continued to make a case to be the Rockies’ everyday left fielder. In the three game set, Blackmon went 5-for-10 with 2 RBIs over the past three games.
–The Rockies tasted .500 for the first time in weeks on Saturday
–The team is now back within easy striking distance of the division leaders
–The Rockies are the hottest team in the NL West in June, with a winning percentage of .588 and a record of 10-7. The Rockies didn’t win 10 games in all of May
The Bad
–The Bullpen continued to give up runs in the late part of games.
–The usually reliable Clayton Mortenson gave up back to back home runs Sunday afternoon, sealing the win for Detroit and killing any chance of a rally the Rockies had.
–The Rockies’ offense was totally shut down Sunday, only good for one run (thank you, Ty Wigginton) on four hits.
–Mentioned this before, but backup catcher Jose Morales was placed on the 60-day DL with a fractured right thumb. Horrible timing too as he was just starting to get warm at the plate.
–Ubaldo Jimenez suffered a calf cramp that made him leave Saturday’s win. Just as he gets back on track, he gets hurt again, though this shouldn’t prevent him from making his next start.
The Ugly
Really only one thing worth writing here – Justin Verlander. He again proved why he is one of the best pitchers in baseball, throwing up his second straight complete game, and allowing just one run on four hits. The problem Sunday didn’t lie with Colorado’s offense (though it could have been better), Verlander just completely overpowered the lineup one through nine.
Game MVP
Ty Wigginton: 1-3, 1R, 1RBI, 1SO. 1HR – .267
On Deck
Coming up today is your usual Monday posts – Power Rankings, Minor League Monday report, and a writeup on the Rockies and the American League coming late Monday. Happy Monday, RoxPile nation!