The Redemption of G-Dog

Two dongs and 5 RBI's. In the first of many must-win games. G-Dog, that's a nice showing.

Seth Smith in his normal pinchy (you got your dugout with you? what we're talking baseball, not grass?) role, picked up Tulo in the 8th when things were still a bit tenuous. I don't like yelling "Tulo you suck!" at the TV but will continue as necessary. It was warranted tonight. C'mon Troy. You're better than that.

Becoming relevant in the NL West means sweeping the Padres. This can be done...

Perhaps Barmes and his shiny dome could don a Star Trek TNG Picard suit and utter the immortal words..."Make it so." (he looks the most like Jean-Luc)

Rockies: Road Warriors?

Didn't see much of this game, but was pleasantly surprised to see the Rocks up 4-2 in the 5th and then quickly expand their lead. This was after watching the tail of seeing the Dodgers lose yet again, this time to the mighty Nats. Finally, I turned my Extra Innings package (that's right, my friend) over to see the Pads putting the hurt on the D-bags 8-2 in the 8th. If I'm not mistaken, Webb was throwing for the Snakes tonight. This would also put us 6 back of 1st place and it ain't even Sept yet.

Barring any meltdowns and/or BSB jinxing, this is looking like a perfect baseball night the NL West. The Rocks would be 7-1 in their last road games. Unheard of. Can this last? Hope so.......

And here's to Super Fuentes sticking around.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the playoff ticket form came in the mail today. That might be stretching it.

Super Fuentes & Willie T on waivers??

Just read this on Ken Rosenthal's column on the MLB/Fox site...
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8492810/Rockies-put-Fuentes,-Taveras-on-waivers

Rookies looking pretty young these days...

Got a pre-game trip onto the field before Saturday's game, as part of the Rockies' Rookies fan club. Fun for young and old alike it turns out.

Wound up being treated to a resilient showing by the Rox that evening, as they were able to come back and pull off what seemed like an unlikely win.

As for Sunday's game. Simply put, Q was due.

Ducks On Pond - Big Daddy Finally Comes Through

After two very weak at bats in clutch moments with the bases loaded, Matty finally delivers with a 3 RBI-double off the right field wall. About time. With good BTB representation, I won't go into detail, but I was pretty sure this game was going wrong for the Rocks once the Reds took the lead mid-game. Cookie didn't have his best stuff and some profound unclutchness at the plate seem to be the order of the evening. Vizciano did a nice job coming into the game in the 6th inning to cleanup Cook's mess, and despite yielding one solo HR in the 7th (a familiar theme for L Vizzy lately), pitched very well. The middle of the lineup finally drives in some runs leading to a much-needed victory. I will also add that the umping was particularly shitty in this game.

I hope ST can post some on-the-field photos later.

HankDog diarrhea update: The shits seem to be subsiding somewhat. This experience has taught us both about the sanctity of a fecal-free home, as well as enlightening us both about HankDog's new favorite food, cottage cheese.

Livan, Stew-bag vs. G-dog, and how the fuck do you lose to a minor league version of the Reds?

Unfortunate as it is, Livan isn't proving to be a very effective pitcher here in Denver. Sure, he got a bit screwed tonight by weak hits and some shit-luck, but seriously...most major league pitchers should be able to mow down the current Reds lineup without too many bumps in the road. A shame, I like him as a player, always seems pretty calm and cool (if not a tad indifferent). Sucks, also considering the Rox bats were up against someone who has flat struggled this year. Aaron Harang managed his 4th win tonight against 13 losses, the dude hadn't won in 2 months!. You just got to shell this guy at Coors. No? That 6th inning sucked. Bases loaded no outs and your 3-4-5 guys coming up, and nothing?
13 LOB? Cue DT's weird stock photo collection...you know, the one with the weird freckled 10 year old tennis player showing how to execute a lob shot?

Stew-bag has pretty much made the case that as far as 3rd base is concerned, G-dog is dispensable. Garrett had a key RBI but nothing more, and has looked bad lately....Ian had a 4 for 5 night and keeps impressing. I like G-dog, but he always comes up in trade talks and I think that Stewart may make those talks more palatable, especially if we can get pitching out of a potential trade.

As this season continues to slip away....a truly lame stat that must be mentioned is Holliday's subpar RISP average; it's a good 50 points below his overall. So much easier when it ain't clutch I guess....

Tomorrow I bring the youthful spawn of Sonic Tooth to Coors to participate in the Rockies' Rookies (kid's fan club) pre-game on-field parade. I'll be the guy with the unkempt beard in the punk rock t-shirt walking the warning track with the nutty, nutty 3 year old girl.




I don't know who the fuck Robin Jones is...but let me tell you, that when Stew-bag isn't roping doubles in a Rockies uniform he is a recognized master of computer puzzles for the archaic British-made Spectrum & ZX81 systems.
Word.

TroutDog Visits Single A Affiliate, Modesto Nuts Home Park

During a recent trip to CA, I made a stop in Modesto on my way to Yosemite to pay homage to the Nuts' park. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.



The security during off hours is amazingly lax. However, the merch shop was open and I corresponded by opening up my wallet.



Really would've liked to have caught a game in Modesto, but I instead settled for a game at AT&T between the Giants and the Marlins. The Marlins pitcher tossed a 2-hitter (thus, a pretty boring game), but we had sweet club level seats right near Mac's Cove.

On The Plus Side, I'm Now Working From Home This Afternoon....

...and can sort of watch today's game. On the downside, I'm working from home because HankDog has the shits. The poor kelpie has had diarrhea the last few days and 10 hours in the house during the work day is too much for him to withhold. In fact, 5 hours this morning was also too much, although I know he tried to hold it and kept the damage to a minimum. The picture to the left is during happier times.

So far, so good. Rocks up 1-0 through 3 and no blow up innings for DLR yet.

I hope this is my last dog diarrhea post for a some time.

It's Just Danny Being Danny (Ardoin)

You always hear about what a great guy he is, but I didn't shed any tears when Ardoin air mailed that ball into right center field on Holliday's 9th inning steal. Somewhere DT was smiling. Hard to say if Hawper's liner to shallow right center immediately afterwards would've been caught had the infield not been drawn in. It's all academic now. The Dodgers commit 4 errors and the Rocks continue to roll on the road. I hope those brooms from the Nats series are still handy. DLR has been hot lately.....

sweep

Should have done it at Coors as well. 8 back means that we ain't out of it, but we'll need to make a similar (if not larger) streak of winning games down the stretch to make the post season (my stros?).

Tacos anyone?

Hawpe Is Thinking About Maybe Going Camo Tonight or My Purple Floss Just Turned 40

Brad Hawpe came up short of a dong a couple of times tonight, but not on his last at bat. I actually thought his previous at bat was a dong, but Purple Floss was right on top of it in his center field bleachers and confirmed that it hit the wall. In my defense, I was stuffing my face at the time with a belated dinner and between the flight of the ball and the cheer of the jackasses in front of me, it was most definitely a HR. But, I noticed a couple of batters later, there was Brad, still on 3rd base. Didn't end up scoring on his 2nd straight leadoff double and it looked like that was going to bite us, after Unwar Manny couldn't hold the lead. Thankfully, I-Dog and Hawper had one more at bat and took care of business.



Fuentes also had designs on blowing this puppy, but was able to induce a grounder from Dunn to mercifully end the game with the bases loaded. All in all, a pretty entertaining game, especially if you were flying solo nerd-style. Even got to enjoy a send-off beer at Swanky's on Tessa's last night. That place could soon be going to shit.

DT - It's up to you to bring home the rubber match.

Haren vs. Rusch - advantage Rockies (we don't lose when Glendon pitches).

I'm still afraid of Snakes...

Made a solo nerd run to tonight's game...in fact I saw TD scooting down 38th as I was walking to the bus stop. Accomplished a few things....bid farewell to Lindsey at Swankys pre-game, haggled myself a single tickie 5 rows behind the Rox dugout for a mere 10 bones, was a couple feet from having a chance at a foul ball, and freaked out a bunch of people by cheering for "Stew-bag" and "I-dog" when Stewart and Iannetta respectively were batting. It seems the upper-crust doesn't really take a shine to goofy nicknames that are invented by those of us who normally sit in the upper deck. Whatever. Ian and Chris were just about the only ones who really produced at the plate, and perhaps my bizarre (vaguely drunken) encouragement was somehow helpful.

A fun night despite the Rockies pretty much trudging further toward the land of no-postseason. Done in a rather lackluster fashion I might add. TD, your post's critique of the game is rather spot-on. Funny, I see you also favor the player nicknames that the folks in section 123 should now be familiar with after my recent residency.

A Little Different Than Hi Corbett

My how things have changed since this spring when DT and I were in Tucson watching the Rockies light up the Big Unit in Cactus League play. I don't think RJ made it out of the 2nd inning. Well, he pretty much dominated the Rockies' bats tonight, with the exception of the 2nd inning. Come the regular season and the Rockies appear to be as scared as the Diamond Backs as DT was of real diamond backs hiking around in Saguaro NP.




This is looking like a typical Rockies game as of late. Play well enough to keep it interesting, pitch ok, but not good enough, never have a lead, and don't get the big hit when it's needed. Ubaldo was shaky all night and was fortunate not to give up more runs. Tavaras' DP in the bottom of the 7th was a crucial blunder. The top 3 in the lineup has killed us tonight. Stewbag and I-Dog the only bats worth a damn. There are still one inning left (feel free to prove me wrong Rocks), but it's looking like the season sinks even lower.

"Goodness, I hope our staff doesn't suck to their full potential in '08"

Sorry Bob. Your worst dreams pretty much came true. Not only did the overachieving bunch from last year fall back to earth, you also got the plastic-bag-full-of-dog-dirt gift of Kip Wells and Mark Redman to round out your rotation this year. What's that? They're not on the team anymore?

OK, well now you've got Livan Hernandez. Super sorry that he shit the bed fantastic yesterday in his debut.

Plenty of time to get things figured out this year....right? Yeah, guess not.

Looks like 2007 ain't coming back...

Magic doesn't exist. If it did, tonight would have been an exciting come-from-behind win against the worst team in the league. Instead it was another subpar start from Cook, loads of Rockies' batters hitting into double plays, and base runners never getting home (points 2 and 3 tending to be intrinsically related). Iannetta can hit a homer with no one on base, but hits into an inning ending double play with the bases loaded (twice). Once in the 7th and again in the 9th.

Hurdle or Apodaca didn't react fast enough to Cook's struggles either, he was tossing up BP pitches the entire 6th inning...by the time DLR was up and in the game it was pretty much too late.

Tatum Wants to Know, Why Did the Rockies Decide To Suck Now??

Francis: Ok start, should've been pulled after 5 innings, down 3-0, pitch count approaching 90, and the pitcher's spot leading off the bottom of 5. Hurdle fucks up. Get 'em next time Frank-Dog.

Ubaldo: Worst start in quite a while. When he wasn't walking batters, he was getting squared up. Opponents got a lot of barrel on the ball.

Offense: Pretty much sorry to weak. No one really stepping it up. Bake Dog was miserable today.

Overall: You lose a 4 game series to the Nats at home in August when you're kind of contending? Pitiful.

Better pull those boot straps up, because the new worst team in the NL is riding into town. Peavy vs. Rusch - advantage Rocks.....

At least the D-bags are getting rolled by the Braves.

The Return of the West Highlands Kid

Tonight marks the return of Jeff Francis after over a month of rest and Double A rehab. I'd like to think we are going to get the 2007 version of Francis, not the disappointing imposter we had seen through the end of June. Seems things were probably not well with his shoulder for a good stretch of those bad starts? Perhaps time will tell.

Rockies have put a claim on Livan Hernandez too, if the Twins do in fact let him go, could be an interesting wildcard in the rotation.

Counting on the bats to get all berzerk here pretty soon...




Been awhile since I've been out to the ballpark and am looking forward to the game tonight...you know what I'm also looking forward to:

Hoping for a bounce back with DLR

The Rox need to be treated to an appearance by the "good" Jorge De La Rosa tonight, not a repeat of his last start against the Fish...that was a disaster.
I must admit I'm a little concerned that we may have caught the Nats at the wrong time. They seem to be (gasp!) a tad bit hot.

Glad to see Willy T back in CF tonight, not sure what that move was about last night giving Cory a start. Pretty much all dogs (I-Dog, G-Dog, and Bake-Dog, perhaps revisit "Dongs for Dogs"?) need to break out of some serious slumps too, they're hurting us this past week. For real, man.

Cook's day in the rotation is my new favorite holiday, (that is until he loses to the Nats)

Sunday Primer

No pressure today, Glendon. Actually a pretty large game (they are all becoming large) and we have Glendon Rusch on the mound. I'm not sure if he's currently our 3rd, 4th, or 5th starter, but he needs to pitch one of his 'good' games today and the bats need to wake up against the Fins. Last night's offensive showing was a joke (Matty's performance aside, OBVI). Note to Hurdle: Play I-Dog and Tulo. Let Yorvit and Q stay on the bench.

With a very tasty looking homestand coming up, it would be great to get a little mo heading back to Denver. A 6-4 roadie sounds way better than 5-5.

Anybody care to be "ducks on the pond?" or get a hit or some shit?

Tito's sticking around...

...and the Rockies decide to stand pat. Besides maybe 1 or 6 more quality arms, I guess they didn't have a ton of needs to address before yesterday's trade deadline passed.

Well, just so happens that those needs were reinforced by last night's debacle down in FLA. That game was over in the 2nd inning. C'mon guys, let's not have the tail end of this road trip be the death knell for any hopes of a Rockies post season appearance in 2008...