At Least It’s Not a Sweep: Rockies Go Down In Detroit

Rockies 0, Tigers 5

Thank goodness for that big 10th inning on Friday night in Detroit, because without that the Rockies would be the most pathetic team in baseball right now. I mean, they still pretty much are, but by a smaller margin. It’s the little things we must take pride in at this point. Here are a few more: the Tigers stranded 12 baserunners today. Tyler Colvin continued to be unquenchable with a pair of hits. Guillermo Moscoso, Matt Reynolds, Matt Belisle, and Rex Brothers combined to toss 4 scoreless innings. That’s all I got.

What an unmitigated disaster is Jeremy Guthrie. It’s clear to me that he’s no longer even trying to be good. After last week’s abysmal start against Oakland, his whole attitude seems to have hit rock bottom. Today he lasted just 3 innings and 78 pitches. He allowed 3 earned runs and a 4th that was unearned but still his fault: on the second pitch he threw in the 3rd, Quintin Berry hit a bunt pop-up, and Guthrie dropped it. That kind of sloppiness tells you everything you need to know about where his head is. I’m hugely disappointed in him. I’m sure that his worsening performances have been frustrating and stressful for him, and that’s a difficult thing. But there’s just no excuse for this, organization-wide. Somebody has to take the blame, whether it’s Guthrie himself with a release, or pitching coach Bob Apodaca, or Jim Tracy, I don’t know, but this is a mess that cannot be cleaned up as long as all these people still have their jobs.

I would like to take a second to say that I do not necessarily believe Dan O’Dowd made the wrong decision in bringing Guthrie aboard. I am not on the side of those who think that the Rockies should have kept Jason Hammel. I never disliked him as much as the worst of his detractors, nor do I now like him as much as his biggest supporters. I have said this before and I will continue to say it: Jason Hammel is a good back-of-the-rotation starter, and his time in Colorado had run out. I would put a great amount of money on the assertion that his current numbers (7-2, 2.87, 77 K’s) would not have been what they are had he stayed. He absolutely needed a change of scenery. I’m thrilled for his success in Baltimore; I never wanted Hammel to fail. I did want him to go somewhere else and try something new, and the fact that that’s worked out is proof that it’s what he needed. Now, despite the fact that I’m in agreement with this trade hypothetically, in actuality what’s occurred is quite damning to the coaching staff in Colorado. If they can mess Guthrie up this badly in less than half a season, and if Hammel’s getting away from them was all he needed to become great, well. That’s all I need to know to strongly feel that it’s time for heads to roll. I just want to clarify that the specific head shouldn’t be O’Dowd’s, at least not when it comes to this particular trade. The failures of Guthrie are coaching failures, plain and simple.

It should be noted that Guthrie left during today’s rain delay, but that’s not really an excuse, since Tigers’ starter Max Scherzer came back after the delay and pitched a full 8 innings. He also notched 12 strikeouts. It was a dominant performance, plain and simple. Scherzer had great velocity, great movement, and the Rockies were completely fooled. As they have been in so many ways lately.

After an off-day, the Rockies head to Philadelphia for a series with the Phillies before resuming interleague play in Texas.