Post-Game: Colorado Rockies vs San Francisco Giants

April 13, 2015 San Francisco, USA; Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weiss (left) shakes hands with San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy before the game at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Chiu-Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports

Post-mortem and some miscellaneous thoughts on the Colorado Rockies’ first game in San Francisco against the Giants Monday afternoon.

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One man’s quick reaction to major story lines in the Rockies’ 2-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Monday afternoon.

Stop walking batters!

Eddie Butler walked six guys in 5.1 innings and yet left with the lead. That’s not going to happen next time. Throw strikes!!!!!! Which brings me to…..

Stop hitting batters!

No, for real, stop hitting batters.

After an Eddie Butler HBP in the first, Rockies hurlers have now hit seven batters through the first seven games of the season. Then, Boone Logan hit Brandon Crawford in the 8th inning. That’s eight in seven games.

Sure, almost half of that was freakin’ Anthony Rizzo who stands on top of the plate, but still… free passes are bad enough when they come in the base-on-balls version, and hit batters are an awful – and cheap – way to give up baserunner traffic and create some crooked innings.

The fewer free passes Rockies pitchers give away this year, the better off the team will be.

Speaking of free passes… the traffic is unsustainable.

In the first four innings, Butler worked out of bases loaded, bases loaded, two-on, and two-on jams. Ten base runners across four innings (but with no runs!) is not really ideal, and Butler needs to limit traffic and get easy innings as a starter if he wants to throw 6+ innings every turn through the rotation.

Patrick Saunders put it better than we could. On the bright side, though? Eleven of Butler’s firs twelve outs came via the ground ball. Which is kinda what we want him to do, so…

Go DJ, that’s my DJ.

Yep, this, all day.

DJ LeMahieu singled in the fifth inning, extending his hitting streak to seven games. And then he singled again. And again.

If you’re curious, the Rockies record for consecutive games with a hit to open the season is 14, set by Ellis Burks back in 1994, so DJ has a little work to do. But he keeps doing enough in that 8^th/9^th spot, and he plays slick D, making another highlight reel play in today’s game.

Knock the starters out, please.

Chris Heston had 11.1 big league innings to his name upon entering the game, and yet he stymied the Rockies multiple times through the order. Hey, maybe he’s the next Madison Bumgarner or Clayton Kershaw. But probably not.

I get his dominance one time through the lineup, but upon the second and third at-bats, well, it’s time to knock a guy like that out of the game. With the pitching staff the Rox have, they’re counting on all the offense they can get.

Brooks Brown and Christian Friedrich looked great.

Kudos to those two guys, because with a starting rotation like the Rockies have, middle relievers who can deal with base runners and keep close games safe are very, very important.

Brown is turning himself into a very valuable middle reliever who can get both righties and lefties out, and Friedrich surprised me with a phenomenal seventh inning with two strikeouts (including one of Buster Posey!) to preserve the lead for the back end of the bullpen.

Congrats to Rafael Betancourt!

Betancourt converted his first save opportunity since August 2013 when he shut down the Giants in the ninth inning Monday afternoon. He came all the way back from Tommy John surgery and is now the oldest active player from Venezuela in the big leagues. Great story, great guy, great results today.

Nice work, Raffy! And nice work to the whole bullpen (Brooks, Friedrich, Boone Logan and Betancourt) for tossing 3.2 scoreless innings.

HOW SHOULD I FEEL AFTER THIS GAME?

Damn good. The Rox are 4-0 on the road. Team’s gonna go undefeated on the road this summer. Y’all can’t tell us nothin’.

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