5/1/09 - COL 2, @ SF 3 - "(Annoyed Grunt)"

Another damned one-run loss tonight. That’s six of them now in 21 games, with nary a win of our own by the smallest margin. If we go 0-fer on one-run ballgames this season, I’ll have an ulcer by June, be bald by July, and be dead by August.

But try as I might to be sullen and grumpy after losses, I still see too many positives. Ubaldo Jimenez finally looked like his old self tonight, although the crappy weather in San Francisco contributed to some wildness that cost him a crucial run in the third inning. Chris Iannetta went deep again, and although he and Troy Tulowitzki only had one hit apiece, they continue to look more comfortable at the plate. Matt Daley, the rookie, turned in a clean 8th inning and looked like he might be a guy that starts to see some more chances.

If Randy Johnson doesn’t turn in a vintage Big Unit performance – seven innings, four hits, no walks, nine Ks – it’s a different ballgame. But he beat the Rox tonight, beat them like the Hall of Famer he is, and you gotta tip your cap to him.

That’s baseball, beautiful and frustrating, often all at once, where you’d love to appreciate a turn-back-the-clock pitching performance by one of the greatest lefties of all time if only it wasn’t your favorite team’s ass that he was breaking it off in.

***

The Best Lefty Pitchers of All Time:

1. Lefty Grove
2. Warren Spahn
3. Randy Johnson
4. Sandy Koufax
5. Steve Carlton

***

Matt Daley kinda looks like Craig Kilborn, doesn’t he?

***

Manny Corpas was the first guy to get savaged on this blog, and I don’t intend to do that very often, but if Garrett Atkins doesn’t start driving the ball to the gaps and soon, he’s going to be next. Can we at least get him out of the cleanup spot while he struggles to find the semblance of hitting ability he’s shown before?

But he does have one more homer than Matt Holliday does this season. So there’s that. Speaking of the former Rockie, how bad would Holliday’s 2009 have to be before he called Dan O’Dowd himself and begged for that four-year, $72 million offer the Rox made him last winter? Whatever the answer is, I sense he’s on pace for that kind of season. Just saying.