"So you're not shitting me...I DO need to win every game for this team?"

The 2008 saviour, Aaron Cook, thankfully takes the mound again tonight. Here's hoping he can help this club avoid a sweep at the hands of the suddenly resourceful Pirates. A sweep could very well translate into a Fuentes trade? Wouldn't surprise me...

Let's hope the bats can remember the damage they did to Z. Duke last time they faced him a little over a week ago. Specifically Baker and Holliday, who looked pretty chumpy last night - but teed off on Duke a couple Sundays ago.

Seems ridiculous to say, but this is sort of a big game.

Pitching looking comically bad...

A series where the Rox should have been able to display their relevance moving forward in the '08 season.

Instead, two very similar games have unfolded. Last night Grilli, Vizcaino, and Herges looking inept in relief of a pretty dicey start by "DLS" and the Rox go on to lose rather convincingly.

Tonight, Rusch gives up 3 runs in 5, leaves with the lead and then Herges and (unwar) Corpas come in and throw the proverbial gas on the fire...now down 6-4 top 8.

Not too impressed with the bad situational hitting or the base running blunders either. Rockies getting initmate with that LOB stat again.

Came into Pittsburgh pretty high but this shit's bringing me down.

Dongs for Dogs

All three dogs on the team are going yard this afternoon: Bake-Dog, G-Dog, and I-Dog.

Currently 8-0 in the 5th, with Ubaldo looking like he has his good stuff yet again. Perhaps another complete game?

This team has suddenly become fun to watch. Keep them bats hot!

Can Super Gallego continue to lead the upward trend for the Rox?

Let's face it, he makes it all look so effortless.

The hands down mid-season MVP for the Rockies has really stepped up his game since the all-star break. Quite scary to think where this club would be right now in the standings without the team leader over there coaching 3rd base game in and game out.

Here's hoping the supporting cast can find a way to contribute here today in the second game visiting the Great American Ballpark in Cincinatti. C'mon Super Gallego!

Sonic Tooth and Trout Dog

On behalf of all thong wearers everywhere I would like to wish both Trout Dog and Sonic Tooth some Happy Birthdays.
ST- Being that you are the most senior, and I emphasize the word senior, member of our crew... we would like to thank you for all your guidance and knowledge. Aw hell, with the significant age difference between us, you're like a second Dad to me. Thanks for being there...

TD- Shit man. You're like the older brother I never wanted.

It's been grand fellows.

The Amazing Ubaldo...

ala Peanut Butter Sandwiches!

Masterful 4-hit performance tonight from Young Ubaldo. The bats continue their hotshit effectiveness. A downright beautiful game. The Rox could have put even more runs on the scoreboard if a few innings hadn't ended poorly with ducks on the pond. Didn't really matter, besides padding hitting stats, thanks to Jimenez.

Rather important to win the rubber game tomorrow and reverse some particularly wretched road futility. The time is now. The NL West sucks. Assert yourselves, Rockies, as a contender in this shit-ass division. WTF? It worked late last year when the division was far from its current joke-status. Make some noise. Dominate some shit or something. Take an acutal dump in the Dodger's laundry basket. Whatever it takes.

As predicted, Kip Wells Blows

He blows both at pitching and into his hand a lot. What a joke of a signing he has been. I must say I publicly questioned his signing as soon as it was made (on denverpost.com). Sometimes, I hate being right. As bad as Wells has been, everyone who has pitched thus far for the Rocks has also sucked badly.

Riffing on the Young Bear's comments, until they play better on the road AND play better within the division, this team will not seriously contend. I plan on bringing my good luck to Coors the next couple of nights. As they say, these lopsided losses don't hurt as much if you can win the close ones....

Denver area hardware stores report severe shortage of brooms....

Holy shit it took a few innings, but the bats caught some serious fire today to complete the sweep of the visiting Pirates.

Pretty much everyone got in on the lumber action; Holliday, Bake-dog, Stew-bag, Barmey, Willie T, and late to the party - to put a capper on things was JoKo and G-dog. Love to see back-to-back jacks...Holliday was feasting on Duke for his in the 5th, you could feel it through the TV screen.

Cook, in classic-Cook fashion, settled down after a rough first, and just cruised.

Now that's how you turn a season around. (hopefully)

Does I-Dog have to carry this damn club?

Nice to get back on the winning track last night, in what looked like on paper (and highlights) to be a solid game that required a certain young pitcher to settle into a groove and a certain young catcher to swing a hot stick. Did Hurdle mention something about a 30 game winning streak during his post game press conference or was I just hallucinating settling in front of my TV last night after 12 hours of air travel while most folks I know were at the King Khan & the Shrines show? Probably a hallucination...

Whether Hurdle said it or not, some sort of solid streak would be nice right about now.

You know what they say around here regarding tonight's game. It's Rusch-time! Oh, I think I'm still hallucinating...

Dan Uggla

I think Uggla was about to recieve a good old fashion ass-whippin after the 10th during tonight's game. It almost seemed like he wanted Cookie to get the loss for his first all-star appearance.

All Star Break Rockies Report Card

F

This grading is made with all due respect to Cookie, Buchholz, Matty, G-Dog, and I-Dog who held their own and were actually pretty healthy too. But for a team grade, the overall record doesn't lie.....

G-Dog(s) Shits the Sheets

A little surprised to emerge from band practice and not see a new post after the very impressive and surprising victory tonight by the Rocks over the Brew Crew. Considering the pitching matchup and the amount of K's Sheets was registering early, it looked rather hopeless. That is until the G-Dog thought he'd make a little habit of going yard. Gotta tip your hat to Glendon Rusch (the other G-Dog?) for his solid 6 innings of 1 run ball. While Manny had some bad luck in the 7th to make it a 4-3 game, the offense decides to get heavily into the insurance business and turn the game into a bit of a route. JoKo with his 2nd dong in the 8th innings festivities.

Amazing that the Rocks are secured at least a series road split with the pitchers they have faced and likewise put on the mound. Everyone's done their job. This team is actually showing a bit of road confidence - keep it going in the matinee tomorrow DLR!

Nice Little League Fielding in the 8th, Fellas

The Jr infield really made this game way more interesting than it need to be in the 8th. JoKo botches a broken bat hit right to him and miscommunication between JoKo and G-Dog puts the 1st two runners on with nobody out. Key to limiting the damage was Ryan Braun grounding into a DP. Corpas mops up to get the 3rd out (really the 5t out) after Prince blasts a 2-run dong off Buchholz and Fuentes gets a 1-2-3 ninth (I'm not kidding) to nail down a much needed victory. With CC going tomorrow and Sheets Wed, getting this first win was crucial.

Nice to see Ubaldo settling down after battling control early and get his first road win of the year. With Francis being out (and not very effective when he's pitched), U really needs to step it up. So far, so good.

Lets keep this hot streak going tomorrow against CC. Who's pitching for the Rocks? Is it Redman? Sweet - advantage Rocks.

I Love Me Some JoKo!!

Yeah, the Sam-Bone is at my crib. A canine slumber party, if you will. A little surprised Sammy and Hank weren't blogging all night long - I left the computer on for 'em.

What can you say about the current stretch? So good to see a solid win after last night's drama (Seriously, ST, one of the best Rockies games EVER. Fuck that, one of the best baseball games I've ever watched.). With Cookie going tomorrow, a serious chance to get a 4-game sweep. To quote a certain Picard, make it so.......

What the hell?

We win after we're done 9 runs? That's not the rockies brand of baseball that I've been watching the past few months, but I can adapt to their new brand of coming through in late innings.

Who wasn't going off yesterday? Reynolds and Vizcaino of couse (Laugh Out Loud), but Matty, G-Dog, I-Dog, and Spilly (who should maybe making a case for an everyday starter at this point). I guess, Hawpe is the answer the question above, but it's not like he's been strugglin lately.

Pretty rad game to be at last night, although I will admit after being down 9-runs, a-pup and I went to slinky's for a couple of innings, missing a good chunk of the comeback (the 5th and 6th). Nonetheless, we sort of accidentally slid down to a section behind homeplote and enjoyed the remainder of the comeback from there. Who doesn't enjoy giving hi-fives to strangers in late innings at sold out Coors Field?

A big task for the rockies at this point: everytime they win 3 or 4 straight, they seem to lose like 7 or 8 straight immediately after. How about not doing that?

You See, I Can Be More Than A Sideshow Jester On This Team

Courtesy of the Kroll cooler-radio, Das Boot players and fans got to hear Spilly come up big tonight and get a base knock with the bases juiced in the bottom of the 11th to give the Rocks a win in the type of game they have been really pathetic in all year. Buchholz gets bailed out for a rare gaffe, as does Herges. Youngsters and baseball-challenged patriots in attendance to see some gunpowder after the game go home happy.

3 wins in a row is an official "winning streak" that needs to continue through the weekend. Gotta say, I like seeing Spilly in game-winning highlights a little more than his off-field antics at SeaWorld.

And how about that Das Boot team? Second skunking in a row!! Can you feel me Greenland??

U Go U

Apparently Ubaldo was inspired by the masterful performance from the previous night by Cookie. The offense came to the party as well executing at key times (the 1st inning excepted). DT and myself were able to take in entire non-stressful affair and put down a few Miller Lites in the process. About halfway through the game we slid into some prime seats and I got a great photo of Glenallen Hill's ass. The ladies go wild for this stuff.



Let's keep this modest momentum going tonight against our expansion rivals, the freakin' Marlins. Francis needs to show up for once.

Maybe a little too much celebrating post-game at Swanky's for DT, PF, and myself?

Let's bring back '07.

We all know Matty was safe.

Rox need to get well against the other super-shitty team in the NL West. It's at home...they're due....why the fuck not?

Because they suck you say? Well I hadn't brought that variable into the equation I guess. Here's hoping they suck just a bit less than the Pads. If the home 9 loses this series, I've got only one thing to say. Look out Nationals, I didn't realize the Rockies' designs on the NL cellar were quite this serious and intense.

You 2008 Rockies Are A Bunch Of Fucking Pussies

That's right. You don't score runs. Your pitching is weak, but we knew that going into the season. The powerful offense was supposed to cover up this shortcoming. The Bombers are laying this most recent collapse at the feet of the heart of the current lineup. Looks like they're cruising to yet another loss...

Sincerely,
Dante, WalkDog, Vinny, and the Big Cat

Fuck this shit, homes...

Not the ideal start to a road trip...

Francis seems to have reverted back to his shitty start to the season after a few strong outings recently. Tonight was his shortest outing in 2008, and another horrible 1st inning. A disappointing loss.

A textbook 2008-style RISP bases loaded inning ending double play there in the second when we had Bannister on the ropes.
Typical.

I'm having a little trouble typing this, but the Royals are pretty much a hot team right now. Won 8 of their last 9 games and have supplanted these Rockies as the most successful of the interleague teams record-wise. This visit to KC isn't timed too well as it turns out. Sorta recall last year losing 2 of 3 from KC at home and pretty much bottoming out for the season, before slowly surging and then of course...surging in spectacular fashion to close out the season and the start of the playoffs. Love to see that again, but I'm not holding my breath.

Not Getting the Job Done

The Rocks lose their first series in while at home today, falling to the NY Mets, 3-1. After last night's strong offensive output to support a gem of a game pitched by Ubaldo, the offense sputters at key times (a familiar theme this season) and wastes a pretty decent outing by young Greg Reynolds. Not a horrible week at home, but a 5-2 homestand with a win today would have felt much better than the mediocre 4-3 record we posted after today's loss.

Up come the Royals next. If the Rocks are to contend late in the season, they need to do two things - 1) play much better on the road and 2) play much better within the NL West. With a week on the road against KC and Detroit in interleague play (something that has been quite friendly to the Rocks), now would be a good time to start on #1.

Thankfully, it appears that the rest of the NL West is having a tough day too. At this point, it only appears we'll only lose ground to the Dodgers.

Game in progress: Back to Back Jacks

Please line up for the Bakedog and Q fan club registration.

Things starting to turn around for this club. Hopefully not too late to salvage shit.

Good god. Some dudes who have bared the brunt of my critical abuse in the past are stepping up and being instrumental in some recent wins. I love that. Amazing to see Todd struggle so much at the plate (still crucial defensively over at first every damn night though I must say) but get lifted by some of these guys when it comes to offensive output.

Nice outing by Francis too. Keep that up my friend.

My A's boasting got its dick knocked in the dirt tonight I'm afraid. The fucking Dodgers won too. Brings me to the simple fact that the Rockies need to win games against their division foes when those games present themselves or these "5 straight series wins" don't mean shit really.

Run to the Hills....

OK. another lame Iron Maiden reference. Sorry about that...

The Rockies pretty much had the American League's most un-PC team mascot running to the foothills tonight at Coors. 17 hits? Double digit runs? I like this kind of party. The Rockies seem to really be enjoying this interleague shit lately.

Quite the enjoyable game to attend I might add. A good load of BSB folks representing tonight on Blake St. (would have liked to seen some Purple Floss action to liven things up...did I just type that?)

This next bit comes from my AL rooting interest, and how it affects any chance the Rockies have of living beyond September 28. Hell Yeah! The fucking A's (my A's?) stomped the D-Backs tonight 15-1, shit this is the franchise that wanted to move to Denver back in '78 but since Al Davis and the Raiders were already acting shifty the city found a way to keep the White Elephant. Long live Stomper...hell to Dinger.

NL West ain't over yet

Still in the cellar of the NL West, but only 8 and a half back of the hated d-backs (I hate'em so much!!!). And still the worst team in the NL but not the MLB thanks to the Royals and M's. With our 4th series win in a row, this puppy ain't over yet. Once Barmey and tulo get healthy we can send down Omar and that should be enough to get us at least to .500 (Omar not being on our team anymore). Good win by the rox yestterday, and prolly later today; I mean we've kind of owned the braves this year. This is a little bit of a post-fluid show-hungover tyraid, but there have been very few days to be a happy rockies fan this year. Am I right?

I don't know why, but this picture pops up on a google image search of 'NL WEST'... fair enough.

Lupus needs a damn beer.

And the Rockies need to step up when a game is on the line. Tonight's game with the ChiSox (and last night's series closeout with the Giants) were both a fairly decent microcosm of a lost season. Last night with the game in reach, Corpas comes in and gives SF two more runs to pad what had been a one run deficit. Tonight, the Rockies have a 4-2 lead in the 7th, Herges comes in and is unable to clean up Francis' baserunner mess, giving up a basehit by Uribe. Shit, Juan hasn't played in a few weeks and his yearly average is under .200 but was able to rope a 2 RBI basehit to tie things up, and then Q isn't able to handle a hot-hit ball at short from jackass Pierczynsczyszyki and the eventual winning run crosses homeplate. Sure the Rox had a couple innings to even the score or take the lead, but decided it better to pad their impressive strikeout totals. Hell, Brandon Cruz and the hated Yankees from the North Valley Little League could have sat down the Rox in a late innings situation I bet.

This team bears no resemblance to the hotshit clutch heroes of last year. Would have been nice if it had been Tulo and Kaz handling the AJ laser instead of Quintinilla and Herrerra, they might have gotten the job done. Sure, it's nice to see Stew-bag and Willie T (what?!?!) get some jacks but to go 1-2-3 in the 8th and 9th only down one run is disgraceful to us fans as well as Morris Buttermaker.

Feel the need to quote from the classic film...this from Kelly Leak hitting on some chick at the ballet studio.

"I'm hitting .841, I'm on the Bears; You live around here? I got a Harley Davidson."

Too much LOB

The LOB factor was pretty out of hand yesterday, and kind of has been all season long. I don't think there was a single starter in the lineup that didn't strand at least one runner yesterday (except for Francis). Tadd with 8 (although that strikeout was kind of BS and could have cost us the game)??? I think I-Dog was the only position player who didn't completely shit the bed when ever there was a runner in scoring position. We need Barmey back.