Again, not surprised. That formula was a recurring one before Chicago, and the Rockies are going to pick on us and laugh at us until we can prove that they, too, matter as an MLB team. We deserve it. That's four straight we've lost against them. Do you think they care they are in last place? As much as we care about first place, which we lost right back to the Dodgers.
All things considered, I'd still rather be a contender. I remember the many years during which we were the bottom dwellers. We'd have talent, sure, but like the Ozzie Smiths and Dave Winfields, we knew we would trade them or lose them to free agency. We would have that one consolation prize, like "Yeah, but we beat the Dodgers this year." That was our life for so long. Now the lesser teams are nipping at our heels. We need to prove that we can play with them.
German Marquez, the Rockies' starter, began the evening with an ERA approaching seven, but did well against us, all things considered. We are absolutely snake bitten by starting pitchers this year. Maybe that's a conversation with the hitting coach. How do we adjust? What are the tendencies? The batting coach is simply not earning his corn. The hitters have thrashed some relatively weak pitching in Chicago, but we have some real problems adjusting to even average pitching. That's between the ears, that's the head coming in to play.
Then there is the execution that is nowhere to be found. Why do our bats only come alive in the middle innings? And what if that is not an option against the supposedly bigger teams? The Rockies bring in another former starter, Jhoulys Chacin, remember him? This time around he had a seven plus ERA, which means he was perfectly fit to shut us down. In essence, the Rockies exchanged one 7+ ERA pitcher for another. Good enough for us. Two shutout innings, he must have felt he was reborn after facing us. 15 pitches in only two innings! In the end, it was their bullpen against ours in a dogfight. Guess who usually wins the dogfights? The dog, not the swan.
Martinez was okay, but the first inning runs hurt, because we aren't as good when we need to play catchup. Also, he was given the lead in the fifth and coughed it right back up in the bottom of their inning. Here, we are just playing to be as average as they are. This is not an insult, it's a fact. Believe me, I've been in the Rockies' shoes for way too may years.
You can't fault any pitcher throwing at mile high altitude. The hitters, yes. If you can't hit up here, then you know you have issues on offense. We are not a very cohesive unit, don't complement each other well. I see that Cron had two hits, as did Manny and Voit. Again, though, no sustained rallies. No moving the runners around, just a prolonged offensive slump. We either slump or get hot at the same time. Meanwhile, everybody is clamoring for Tatis to get back. Curse you, Tatis. You are the most talented player to ever don this jersey, but the commitment is not there, Mr. Easy Rider. But that's okay. All will be forgiven for a modest fee...in this case a World Series title.
We've got the same people on the Rockies picking on us, among them Blackmon and Cron (not our Cron). Cron is just killing us. Think we might have a hitter who can do the same in the Denver air? We can only wish for now. Manny, maybe, but he had a horrible at bat in the ninth with the tying and winning runs on base.
Mission failed at Coors. Think we can save one here? We've got another team, Arizona, coming to San Diego that I don't care about. Guys, do we care enough to play them? Spoiler alert: these games count as well.
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