Saturday’s First Pitch

Leading Off

The front office is looking pretty smart right about now. Mark Ellis’s Rockies debut sang to the tune of 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs and a home run. We’ll see how he continues to make his home in the lineup going forward, but that was not a bad way to start things off.

The Good

Ellis wasn’t the only offensive producer last night. Nearly everyone made some kind of contribution to the Rockies’ 9-0 win over the Royals. Carlos Gonzalez did what a lead-off man should do and got on base 3 of 4 times, twice on a walk. He scored each time he reached. Troy Tulowitzki went 1-for-4 but his 1 was a 2-run home run. To the opposite field no less. Ty Wigginton went 2-for-4. And my very favorite Charlie Blackmon hit his first career home run. On his birthday. That’s almost as good as if he’d done it on my birthday (which is in December, so I’ll take this instead).

The Really Good

We don’t usually include this is a category in our First Pitch posts, but I’m breaking the mold in favor of a guy who is doing plenty of that himself. Juan Nicasio is officially awesome. My excitement over him feels very like the excitement I felt at Jhoulys Chacin’s arrival last season. And we all know what Chacin’s accomplished since then. Nicasio shows every sign that he’ll be a dominant pitcher as he grows into his talent. Lights-out fastball, and some terrific off-speed stuff that’s developing very nicely. Last night he held the Royals to 3 hits over 8 shut-out innings. That speaks for itself.

The Bad

I don’t think this is bad, but Jim Tracy probably does: Seth Smith went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts against the otherwise dominated Danny Duffy. Just when we thought maybe Smith was going to be allowed to start every day regardless of the specific dexterity of the other team’s starting pitcher. I hope Jim will give Smitty another chance against the next lefty we face.

The Ugly

3-for-16 with runners in scoring position. Fortunately that didn’t hurt us yesterday, but it’s still not anything to be proud of.

On Deck

Your Rockies Woman Weekly Report is coming within the hour, followed by the Daily Matchup as soon as lineups are posted.