Cold Brewed Baseball: Giants Spoke Softly, Carried A Big Stick - mkilcNYR's Dynasty

mkilcNYR's Dynasty Blog

Cold Brewed Baseball: Giants Spoke Softly, Carried A Big Stick

Posted on July 25, 2015 at 07:10 PM.

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Hey everyone. The Rockies are officially here and ready to begin this six game road trip through California and are ready to kick off this 3 game set against the Giants to get the ball rolling.

Game One: Game one did not go at all as the Rockies planned. While managing to score 2 runs in the Top of the 3rd off Tim Hudson thanks to a run single by Corey Dickerson (which boosted his average to a healthy .307), Tyler Matzek completely coughed up the lead in the bottom half of the inning surrendering 4 runs. To add injury to insult Corey Dickerson went down gripping his shoulder in pain after throwing a ball to home plate to try and save a run on a hard hit single by Buster Posey. Rockies medical staff said that while he did not tear anything he did have a case of shoulder inflammation and was put on the 15 day disabled list with a return time of late April.

The rest of the game did not go well for the Rockies. The Giants would tack on a few more runs to wind up winning the game 8-4 and taking the first of this 3 game set in the Bay Area.

Colorado Rockies at San Francisco Giants
Apr 13,	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Colorado (3-3)	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	4	16	0
San Francisco (2-5)	0	0	4	0	3	0	1	0	X	8	12	0
W: Hudson (1-0) L: Matzek (1-1) S: Casilla (3)

Game Notes: After the injury to Dickerson, Drew Stubbs was put in to play LF and will platoon there with Brandon Barnes for the duration of Dickerson's DL stint. Rosell Herrera was called up from AAA Albuquerque Isotopes to provide depth on the bench. Eddie Butler once again was called on to pitch in relief in a game and performed well again. He pitched 2 innings in relief of Matzek giving up 1 hit and striking out 2. He lowered his ERA to 0.87.

Game Two: With that disastrous game 1 loss to the Giants now behind them and seeking to break the 4 game losing streak, the Rockies handed the ball to Kyle Kendrick in the hopes that the streak would end here in the Bay. The Rockies got off to a nice start in the first inning as D.J LeMahieu singled, reached second on a grounder after he was put into motion to avoid a DP, and scored on a hit by Nick "Heavy Hittin'" Hundley who drove him in with a double.

Kendrick would cough that lead right up in the bottom half of the inning as Nori Aoki and Angel Pagan both came around to score. The Giants tacked on another in the bottom half of the 4th to push the score line to 3-1 in San Fran's favor. However the rookie Kyle Parker did nicely filling in for Carlos Gonzalez in this one by driving in 3 runs on a double in the 5th inning to give Colorado a 4-3 advantage. Kendrick would go into the 7th and all seemed well until the bottom of that inning when Rex Brothers came on in relief with only 1 more out to get in the inning for a tired Kyle Kendrick (he gave up a single to Nori Aoki which prompted his removal from the game and he had almost 0 energy left). An Angel Pagan triple later and the score was tied 4-4 with Brother's visibly upset at his performance.

San Francisco would tack on 1 more in the bottom of the 9th to walk off with a 5-4 win in a game that felt like it was robbed from the Rockies.

Colorado Rockies at San Francisco Giants
Apr 14,	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Colorado (3-4)	1	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	4	11	5
San Francisco (3-5)	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	5	8	0
W: Petit (1-0) L: Hawkins (0-1)

Game Notes: One bright spot in the losing effort was rookie Kyle Parker who began the year with the parent club due to the injury to Carlos Gonzalez that he suffered in spring training. With the 3 RBI double that Parker ripped in the 5th he finished the game 2-4 with 3 RBI. He now has a .320 average, 1 HR, and 9 RBI to begin the young season. Rex Brothers suffered his first blown save on the year. The Rockies committed an unprecedented 5 errors on the field in the game. D.J LeMahieu committed a whopping 4 of them at second base and Morneau committed 1 at first.

Game Three: David Hale took the mound for the Rockies as they try to stave off elimination in the series finale of this 3 game set. He also is trying to dispel the belief that he should be demoted after the 1.1 inning performance in the Opening Day disaster that had many in the organization looking at Jon Gray as a potential early call up if Hale can't right the ship. However he did prove he can compete at this level. Hale went 6 innings, giving up 6 hits, 2 walks, 2 runs, while striking out 5 Giants. He managed to keep the Rockies in it to win it with the score at 2-1 thanks to a sac fly by Brandon Barnes who brought in Kyle Parker from third after he hit a triple leading off the 5th inning.

It was not to be though as the Giants scored again in the 8th and finished up the series with a sweep taking the third game 3-1 from Colorado.

Colorado Rockies at San Francisco Giants
Apr 15,	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Colorado (3-5)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	8	1
San Francisco (4-5)	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	X	3	7	0
W: Peavy (2-0) L: Hale (0-2)

Game Notes: David Hale did lower his ERA from being over 33 to now at 8.59 on the season, still though a disgusting number to look at. Kyle Parker now has a 3 game hitting streak after he went 1-4 with a triple in the losing effort. Troy Tulowitzki could not have had a worse day. Besides going 0-4 he also went 0-3 with RISP which undoubtedly led to the Rockies dropping another game that felt like it was absolutely winnable.

Even though the series with the Giants did not go as planned there is still half a road trip left and the Rockies are determined not to make many of the same mistakes as they did in the series in San Fran. Here are the matchups for the 3 game series against the Dodgers:

Game 1: De La Rosa (0-1, 1.50 ERA) vs. Wieland (0-0, 5.40 ERA)
Game 2: Lyles (0-1, 2.30 ERA) vs. Kershaw (2-0, 2.12 ERA)
Game 3: Matzek (1-1, 8.71 ERA) vs. Greinke (2-0, 0.50 ERA)

Hope you all follow along as the Rockies continue onward to the City of Angels and the dangerous Los Angeles Dodgers!