All the sports shows tend to forget about the Rockies, and early in the season they should have, but now they are coming back strong, and people should start to take notice. Last night’s win against the Brewers was key for getting the team back to the .500 mark. The Rockies don’t always perform their best on the road, but last night showed a team that can win anywhere; beating the Brewers 4-3 at Miller Park. 

Ubaldo Jimenez got control of the game and pitched seven shut out innings even though he struggled in the count. A lot of the batters he faced saw themselves ahead in the count, but Jimenez battled back. He gave up no runs on three hits and struck out seven guys. I think that I can take some credit for his performance, because on the 4th of July I saw him and told him what a great pitcher he was. He had fan support, which helped him with his confidence. And last night he was 100% confident in tough situations. 

The Rockies are getting more and more confidence in their bats too. Last night was not a high scoring game, unlike the fourth’s 18 run win, but they got enough to finish it off. Both Matt Holliday and Jeff Baker went two for four. One of Holliday’s hits was a line drive homerun out to centerfield which put the Rockies ahead by three. Garrett Atkins got a sacrifice fly RBI putting him at 51 tied with Holliday. The one thing the Rockies have had trouble with this year is leaving runners on base. Last night they left nine guys on, and in a close game like this one turned out to be those nine potential runs could have made a difference. 

The Rockies don’t lack defense, and they showed it off last night-at least until the eighth inning. Jimenez picked Braun and Hart off of first. And the Rox also turned the only two double plays in the game. They fell apart defensively in the eighth though. First Joe Koshansky received an error when a short hit ground ball came his way and he missed the tag. Then a miscommunication between Atkins and Chris Iannetta became a single after a high pop-up dropped right in front of the mound. The Brewers were able to score three runs in the eighth. But Brian Fuentes was on his A game and struck out two batters and then got the third out off a lazy fly to left. Since he has been able to shut down the other teams in his last two outings, I don’t know how much longer he will be a Rockie. 

It was an eventful second to last inning but the Rockies were able to hold on. The Rox face CC Sebathia, his first outing as a Brewer, in Miller Park tonight and hopefully can turn one win into two.

ROCKSTAR of the game: UBALDO JIMENEZ