Chacin, White Shine in Rockies’ Win Over Reds

Is Todd Helton perfect? Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

Rockies 7, Reds 3

Not a bad thing: holding an offense like Cincinnati’s to 3 runs. Really not a bad thing: any time Todd Helton homers twice in a game.

Dazzling

“Brandon Wood is incredible!” cried the masses. “Brandon Wood is terrible!” cried the masses ten minutes later. Let’s all agree to get off the Brandon Wood roller coaster. Yes, he had a few massive games in which his offensive production was amazing, but now he’s settled back into his regular territory (mediocre hitting, so-so defense), and he is probably not the third base savior. Still, people all over the internet will probably be crowning him king tonight because he had one plate appearance and he both reached base and scored. So obviously he’s back to being brilliant.

Can the Toddfather do no wrong? It would certainly appear that way. The 38-year-old who is surely nearing the end of his career is still raking, and today he hit two home runs. He also made an inning-ending unassisted double play on a line drive. Stellar.

Casey Blake recorded his THIRD hit of the spring, and it was even a 2-run home run! Maybe he’s the third base savior? Not so fast. He also committed an error. He’s also still a tic tac away from total neck blowout, so don’t get too excited about this.

It was a that’s-more-like-it outing for Jhoulys Chacin today, who stayed in the game 5 innings and only allowed 2 earned runs. He also allowed 6 hits, 2 walks, and a hit batsman, but I think he’s a ways off from no traffic at all. So we’ll just be satisfied when he handles it as well as he did today and prevents almost everybody from scoring. It helps when he gets inning-ending strikeouts and double plays, which he did.

A very fine showing by Alex White today, who took the 6th and 7th innings and allowed 2 hits while walking no one and striking out 3. That is the kind of outing we need to have from him on a more regular basis, and perhaps it’s a glimpse of what we’ll see when he’s a little bit more ready.

Brandon Roberts has had exactly one at-bat this spring, and he made it count by hitting a 2-run double in the 8th inning today. Not a bad way to make an impression.

Disappointing

It’s hard to get too upset with Carlos Gonzalez when he has an 0-for-3 game, because it’s not as though he’s stringing them together. Still, it is a little disappointing. Even more disappointing is when Troy Tulowitzki does it in the same game. Smack on the hand for both of you.

Matt Reynolds walked in a run. Double smack on the hand.

The Rockies take on the Angels tomorrow afternoon at 2:05 MDT. I’ll be tweeting play-by-play from my Twitter account.

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