After losing a close game, 2-1, to the Mets the night before you would think the Rockies would bring some more offense the next night to prove themselves, but they actually brought less. It was an easy win for the Mets last night, who shut out the Rockies 3-0. 

Ubaldo Jimenez had another great outing. He pitched six innings with three runs on seven hits. For any starting pitcher three runs is respectable and usually can bring in a win. But the rest of the team needs to get some runs and  the bullpen needs to finish it off. But the Rockies had two out of three things needed to win, a good start and the bullpen domination, but they didn’t have the bats to score. 

Brad Hawpe was the only Rockie to get a hit. In nine innings only one man got on base from making contact. It was a pretty sad sight to see as a Rockies fan. They were so close the entire game and just couldn’t make it happen. 

The Rockies are losing ground in the NL West and every loss is huge. This year the the division isn’t at its best and the Rockies need to capitalize. The close games are key and it makes me nervous when they don’t win them. Just as the team was getting its strength back offensively they get shutout.

Tonight’s game is a big one. They need to prove themselves in front of America on ESPN. The lesser known teams in the West don’t get the Sunday night game that often and the Rox need to regain the respect they had at the end of last year; they need to capture a win. 

ROCKSTAR of the game: 

After the first game I was thinking hey, the Rockies are back! But after last night I held myself back and realized they have a long way to go. Last night the Rockies lost 7-3 to the Brewers. It was one of those games that they could have easily won, but couldn’t bring in the runners. 

Mark Redman started for the second time since Jeff Francis was put on the DL. He didn’t look as bad as the score did. He pitched five innings and gave up four runs on five hits. He made one mistake to Braun who took advantage and homered scoring three runs. His pitches looked good, but he just didn’t have the run support. 

After coming off of a huge fourth of July weekend the Rockies seemed to have used up all their hits. There wasn’t a lot of offense in last night’s game for the Rockies. Garrett Atkins was the only player on the team who had two hits raising his average to .311. Matt Holliday kept his hitting streak alive with one hit last night, it was this 11th straight game with a hit. But other than that there really wasn’t much. In the early part of the season the Rockies were having trouble with scoring runs and I am hoping this was just a one night deal, and they have it out of there system.

The bullpen also needed some help. Matt Herges, who usually shuts down the other team, struggled last night. He thew for one and 2/3 innings and gave up three runs on two hits. Before Herges gave up the three, the Rockies were only down one. It should have been tied at that point, but when the bases were loaded and Yorvit Torrealba hit a ball down the right field line, Ryan Spilbourghs pulled up rounding second and stopped at third in obvious pain. It was later reported that Spilbourghs strained an oblique. 

Injuries have really been plaguing the Rockies lately. With Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki and Francis on the 15 day DL, Jeff Baker out for a couple games with a wrist problem and now Spilly out for awhile, the team is starting to look like the Sky Sox. I don’t know who the strength and conditioning coach is, but something isn’t working. Earlier in the year Holliday, Brad Hawpe, and Tulowitzki were all out with quad problems. The Rockies need to keep their team healthy in order to pull ahead in the NL West. 

They are going against the Brewers ace (well at least he was there ace before Sabathia) Ben Sheets tonight. It would be nice to see another win for the Rockies at Miller Park, we need all the away wins we can get. 

ROCKSTAR of the game: GARRETT ATKINS

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

I don’t even know what to say. It was one of the most amazing games I have ever seen live. The Rockies battled back to beat the Marlins 18-17. The Rox were down 9 at one point and the only time the teams were tied was before the game had started and the bottom of the ninth. It was the greatest comeback in Rockies history. 

I seriously don’t think I can do this justice. If you are reading this then try and find a highlight reel, start with Sportscenter (I would have said Baseball Tonight but we are in the West and they won’t have it on because the game went too late). I will give you a little tidbit though: the Rockies had six homeruns and the Marlins had 22 hits. Combined, the teams had 35 runs on 43 hits. It was truly amazing.

 I was at the game tonight and I didn’t just see an amazing game. I was lucky enough to be able to sit with George Brett for an inning, which for my family is like meeting God. My brother is named Brett for a reason, and he was sitting right in front of me. He came down to our seats just to say hi to my mom who has had a fantasy her whole life of watching a baseball game with Brett. Then if that wasn’t good enough, my dad and I were on our annual walk around the stadium- while the fans move from left field and the rockpile to the field for the fireworks- and I saw Ubaldo Jimenez walking around. We stopped and said hi. Then finally the fireworks, which couldn’t even compare to the fireworks in the bats tonight. 

The Rockies will go for a third win against the Marlins tomorrow, and hopefully the third one is the charm and it won’t have to be won in a walk off situation. 

ROCKSTAR of the game: GARRETT ATKINS (he is always forgotten and tonight he went five for six)

After losing the first game horribly, the Rockies came back to take the series. Tonight’s game was a showcase of the Rockies bats with an 8-1 win. With a team who has shown little offense this season it is nice to see them battling back.

Ubaldo Jimenez got the start today and and pitched one for the books. He pitched six and 1/3 and only gave up one run on five hits. Jimenez is known for his blistering fast ball and he showed it off tonight; at one point, the speed gun at Coors Field showed 96 MPH. Fastball pitchers usually get strikeouts, but Jimenez worked the ground balls tonight, which, for the best defensive team in baseball history last year, is easy. The team worked together to get the outs, and, like I have said before, the team wins when they play like a team. 

The Rockies runs were a team effort too. Garrett Atkins got things started when he singled in a run with the bases  loaded in the first.  In the second, Atkins was at it again with a three run homerun. He really proved himself as a cleanup hitter. He went three for four on the night with four RBI’s. Troy Tulowitzki is slowly but surely battling back from his .150 batting average, he golfed a two run homerun in the third and ended the night at .164. In my opinion, one thing that is holding him back is his walk up song.  Brittany Spears just doesn’t seem like a .300 hitter’s walk up song; he should at least go back to R. Kelly and his .291 average. The final run in the game came in the eighth off of a Yorvit Torrealba homer out to left center. One guy who has really struggled this home stand is Brad Hawpe he struck out three times in tonight’s game and has not been seeing the ball. Hopefully it is a temporary slump, and he will come out of it by tomorrow’s game against the Marlins. 

The major league bullpen showed up tonight. Jason Grilli, Cedrick Bowers and Luis Vizciano all played their part in the win, only giving up one hit in three innings. The pitcher of the night was Bowers who made his major league debut. His journey to the majors has been a long one, but he finally made it. After being drafted in the fourth round in 1996 by Tampa Bay, he played eight years in the Tampa Bay minors- three of which were at the AAA level- then made the long trek to Japan where he pitched for four years, and then finally making his way to Colorado. At the age of thirty Bowers has made it to the show and he proved himself tonight by relieving Jimenez and getting the final two outs in the seventh. He only faced two batters and struck out one and got the other on a ground ball to third. He will hopefully add some relief in the bullpen.

Tomorrow the Rockies start a four game series with the Florida Marlins, who are a game and a half behind the Phillies in the NL East. I hope the Rockies can keep the bats going for the 4th of July weekend.

ROCKSTAR of the game: GARRETT ATKINS

The Rockies ended their eight game losing streak, and they ended it with style, winning 4-0 with an Aaron Cook complete game. He has really shown that he belongs in the All Star lineup in two weeks. It was a total turn around from last night’s tough loss. 

Cook has taken over the position of Rockies ace. Tonight was one of the two complete games he has already thrown this season, second in the NL with complete games; one behind Ben Sheets. After last night’s game, any sort of win would have been an improvement, but Cook came out and threw a complete game. He got 14 ground ball outs and only three strikeouts, but the thing about ground outs is the pitch count is low. He ended the eighth inning only having thrown 69 pitches, and ended the game with only 79. His stellar pitching performance also sped up the game, which only lasted 1 hour and 58 minutes, and MLB should take advantage of this because, I don’t know about you, but I have never been to a football, hockey or soccer complete game less than two hours long. 

All the Rockies runs came in the fifth inning. It started off with a Troy Tulowitzki double and then a textbook sac bunt by Cook to move Tulo over to third. Willy Taveras hit a single up the right field line to score Tulo. During Todd Helton’s at bat Taveras stole second, and then, with Helton on first with a walk and Matt Holliday up to the plate, Taveras stole third. Holliday would eventually get on with Bank’s second consecutive walk. After striking out his last two at bats, Brad Hawpe came up to bat and got lucky with a fielder’s choice, which should have been a double play, with one run scoring and then another run came in off of a shortstop throwing error. Garrett Atkins  doubled in Hawpe, who made it to second off of a stolen base. That one inning was all the Rockies needed. 

Cook only gave up five hits on the night and Omar Quintanilla, who replaced Jeff Baker in the ninth, kept it that way. In the top of the ninth with a hardball hit just out of Helton’s reach, Quintanilla ran over, dove for the ball, got it and shot up quicker than you can say Quintanilla. The ball got to Helton just in time for the out. It was a key play in the game for Cook. 

The Rockies can’t get the sweep tomorrow, but can go for the series win against the Padres. Hopefully tonight’s team will show up and not last night’s.  

ROCKSTAR of the game: AARON COOK

Tonight I guess you could say that I jinxed the team. I decided that I was going to once and for all see if my Rockies baseball cap is truly bad luck. It is. I wore it to all four games of the World Series, then my first game back from college and, for one last time, tonight with the 15-8 loss. The Rockies lost every single game, so I have decided to burn it and hopefully get the Rockies back on track. Right now the team could use anything to get them going again.

The night started off great for the Rockies who scored three in the first off of a bases loaded double by Chris Iannetta. And then three more in the third with a Brad Hawpe bomb out to center field. The runs weren’t over for the Rockies who scored another one in the fourth and fifth. They had a five run lead going into the sixth and all was looking good. But just like the Rockies record things went downhill. 

Jorge De La Rosa pitched a pretty good game up until the sixth, he only giving up three runs. But as he threw more pitched the Padres got more hits. He gave up three in the sixth before he was taken out. It was the bullpens turn to take over. Ryan Speier came in and gave up two runs to tie the game. No lead is safe when it comes to the Rockies. After Matt Herges came in and shut down the Padres offense the Rockies had a glimpse of hope, but it was soon crushed by Brian Fuentes.

Fuentes is one of those closers that is either on or off with no in between and tonight he was as off as a closer can get. I could tell it wasn’t going to be a good outing when he gave up a lead off hit. After that first hit he gave up four more. The Padres scored FIVE runs off Fuentes, FIVE. It was not a pretty sight. After giving up those FIVE runs Clint Hurdle finally had to take him out and gave Luis Vizciano a shot at lowering his 8.00 ERA. But Vizciano ended up giving up two more runs. So after being up five runs the Rockies ended up being down seven. 

The Rockies couldn’t respond in the bottom half of the ninth going down 1, 2, 3. It was close to a sellout crowd tonight and it might be one of the Rockies last with the way they blew it tonight. As the Padres scored more and more runs the fans booed louder and louder, which is a sound rarely heard at Coors Field. Lets hope tomorrow night the Rockies can redeem themselves 

After sweeping the Indians, the Rockies couldn’t win against the Mets; final score 7-2. It has been hard for the Rockies to get wins this year, and after coming off a sweep the team was looking forward to playing the Mets; but tonight they couldn’t get it done.

Aaron Cook was not looking like his usual self (a 10-4 record after tonight.) He gave up six runs on twelve hits in seven innings. Cook looked good in the first with two ground ball outs and a strikeout, but he lost it in the second. The wind started to kick up in Coors Field and so did Cook’s pitches. He couldn’t keep his pitches down and the Mets capitalized, scoring five of their seven runs. He also gave up a homerun to Trot Nixon in the third. It was not a good night for the Rockies ace who got the loss.

One guy for the Rockies who has really been on fire is Jeff Baker. He homered in the second to give the Rockies a two run lead. This was his fourth homerun in four games. And even though he is not a true second baseman, he has really stepped up defensively and proved himself worthy. Baker was two for four and drove in the only Rockies runs in the game. It doesn’t look like he is going to be headed down to AAA any time soon with the way he is playing. Maybe his success can rub off on some of the other guys on the team.

Troy Tulowitzki had his first game back since being injured on April 29th. He was 0 for four but had two hard hits that the Mets made spectacular plays on. He was in a slump before the injury and hopefully being away will help out his .150 batting average. The fans were excited to see Tulowitzki back in the line up, but I refuse to do the Tulo cheer until he gets a hit. Tulowitzki needs to get himself back up to major league caliber.

Both Todd Helton and Garrett Atkins struggled tonight. Helton went 0 for four with a strikeout and two pop-ups. Atkins also went 0 for four with three ground balls and a strikeout. The Rockies win when the heart of the lineup gets hits and tonight that wasn’t happening; John Maine struck them down.

Tomorrow the Rockies face Pedro Martinez. Hopefully it will be a better showing for the Rockies offense. 

ROCKSTAR of the game: JEFF BAKER

The Rockies have been the only National League team dominating the American League this year. Tonight’s 6-3 win against the Indians was for the sweep and although the Rockies have won four of their last series it  was the first sweep of the season. The Rockies have won their last five games. 

Jorge De La Rosa got the start tonight and pitched a good game with three runs on four hits in six innings. He stayed calm after giving up 2 runs in the first off of a Francisco homerun. The next run wouldn’t come until the sixth off of a Blake homerun. He also had a career high number of strikeouts tonight with ten. His work on the mound was a huge part in the win.

Another player who was once again a huge part in the win was Jeff Baker. He hit the go-ahead run in the sixth with a bomb out to left center field. Baker even got his first intentional walk of the season. His defense on first base could use some work but he definitely made up for it in offense. Matt Holliday had an RBI tonight along with Brad Hawpe who had two. 

The man of the night was Doug Bernier who was brought up from AAA for only three games. Tonight was his first major league start and although he didn’t get that elusive first hit he played some good defense. He assisted Yorvit Torrealba on a pick off play in the third and got the first out in the ninth by running out to center and making a catch. He must have been good luck for the Rockies, who won every game he was brought up for. He will most likely go back down tomorrow but it was a nice cup of coffee for Bernier, who has spent seven years making his way to the show. 

The Rockies start a series with the Mets tomorrow at Coors Field and hopefully the Rockies can keep up the winning. 

In other news the Rockies signed their first round draft pick, Christian Friedrich, today. 

ROCKSTAR of the game: JEFF BAKER and DOUG BERNIER

The Rockies are playing some good baseball; they have won their last four series (unless you count that one game against the Braves as a series then it’s four out of five). They are finding ways to win and  are catching up in the NL West. The Rockies took game two of the Indians series winning 4-2 tonight.

Jeff Francis was on the mound and pitched a great game. He gave up 2 runs on 5 hits in 6 innings. The pitchers have really been stepping up lately for the Rockies, especially the starters. Francis got the win and now is 3-6, closing in on that 500 mark. With a rough start to the year, Francis is coming around and starting to look like the ace he was last year. 

The rest of the Rockies lineup is also starting to play like the National League champions. Jeff Baker and Omar Quintanilla both had another great game. Baker was 2 for 4 with a homerun in the 4th and Quintanilla was 2 for 3 with 2 of the Rockies RBI’s. These two created the winning run tonight in the 6th when Baker got on first with a fielder’s choice and, two batters later, Quintanilla singled to bring Baker home. It is going to be hard to decide who to send down to AAA when Troy Tulowitzki and Clint Barmes come back with Quintanilla and Baker playing so well. 

The bullpen was once again doing its job. Jason Grilli, Taylor Buchholz, and Brain Fuentes all came out of the pen and kept the Indians at bay. Combined, they pitched 3 innings and gave up 0 runs on 1 hit. Fuentes only faced 3 batters, which is unheard of for him. The bullpen has really helped out the team lately and will hopefully keep this going. 

 The Rockies have really been shutting down the Indians. Well, most of the Indians. Former Rockie Jamie Carroll is playing like he is at his home field and, let me tell you, I wish he was.  We are still looking for  a true second baseman to take on a full time position. Carroll had two doubles tonight and batted in 1 run. 

The Rockies are going for the sweep tomorrow night, and this time it is going to happen. 

ROCKSTAR of the game: JEFF BAKER and OMAR QUINTANILLA