Rockies Edge Past Giants With Offensive Onslaught

Rockies 7, Giants 6

If your pitchers are struggling, all you can hope for is that their pitchers are struggling more. And when that happens, this is what you get.

Dazzling

It wasn’t Juan Nicasio’s best outing, but I’m still inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt on everything at this point. And it wasn’t a bad one either. He threw a LOT of strikes, which resulted in 6 strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings, but which also resulted in 10 hits. Nicasio controlled his traffic well, though, and the fact that he didn’t walk anybody meant that he was able to manage the guys who got on base. 3 earned runs in this outing is fine, especially since he went almost as deep as I’d hope he would on an average outing. If he goes 7-ish innings most of the time and allows 3 runs on occasion, he’s still going to have a winning record.

Jordan Pacheco was a monster in the 3-hole today, collecting 3 hits in 4 tries and scoring once. He did get picked off as well, and we always frown on that, but at least he was on base in the first place.

Troy Tulowitzki had a great day, cranking a solo home run and reaching on a fielder’s choice, scoring later in the inning. His .355 clip is very promising because we know he’s capable of actually hitting that during the regular season, and I don’t see why we should expect less. He’s the offensive center of this club, and to see him healthy and hitting with intelligence is always a very good thing.

Todd Helton can do no wrong, obviously. Today he was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. I don’t know what else to say about him except that he’s amazing.

As many are saying now that Brandon Wood’s star has faded, Chris Nelson actually stands a pretty good chance of getting another shot to start at third base. Casey Blake is just old, and Nelson is not, though he certainly can be unreliable. If he keeps having 2-for-4 games like he did today, though, well, what choice do we have but to give him that shot?

Disappointing

Just about everyone contributed something at the plate today except for Dexter Fowler, who is really starting to worry me. He showed such promise in the second half of last season, and he just can’t afford to be backtracking now. If he doesn’t start to build on what he brought to the team after his call-up last year, his time is going to start running out. 0-for-4 with a strikeout today, and that’s with everybody else hitting up a storm around him.

Okay, not everyone contributed. Eric Young Jr. was asleep at the wheel too, 0-for-4 and stranding 5 men on base. With him hitting 8th and Fowler leading off, there was a whole lot of offensive momentum lost, and in a game where others are hitting less that’s a big problem. EYJ is reaching a point where we need a definitive answer on what he can do, and I don’t know that we’re any closer to that answer than we were when we first started seeking it.

Do we really need to keep having the Esmil Rogers conversation? I mean, really? No, I don’t think that we do.

The Rockies host the Reds in an afternoon game tomorrow.