5/12/09 - COL 12, HOU 1 - "That's More Like It"

Here’s the best analogy I can conceive for the Rockies right now: they’re the underachieving high school student, the one with a brain in their heads that they’d just rather use to do things like make inappropriate jokes during lectures or devise classroom pranks. They seem perfectly content with doing only the bare minimum and hand in C-plus work on a regular basis. But every now and then, that student will turn in a paper that’s inspired, or apply themselves towards studying for a test, and produce A work. And the teacher calls that student in after that day in class, hands the student that A work, and says, “Now why can’t you do this more often?”

That’s what I ask after seemingly every Rockies win this season (hey, that’s two straight now), particularly one like tonight’s, where the Rox blasted four home runs and got brilliant pitching from Ubaldo Jimenez in a 12-1 victory over Houston.

They should all be so easy and stress-free. You watch Ian Stewart on a night like tonight and wonder why he can’t swing aggressively instead of defensively more often, as the aggressive approach resulted in a solo homer and a grand slam. You watch Jimenez and wonder how he ever gives up a run with his 99 mph fastball seemingly allergic to ash and maple. You watch Brad Hawpe drive in five runs and wonder what kind of numbers he could post if he could ever avoid those awful slumps he runs into every season.

You watch the Rockies on a night like tonight and wonder how they’re 13-18. And you wonder if it’s out of the realm of possibility to get back to .500 by month’s end.

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Clint Hurdle got the ‘vote of confidence’ from both owners today. If the players really like playing for him, we’re about to find out.

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Things That Annoy Me About Drew Goodman: Part II of a multi-part series

Goodman called Chris Iannetta’s fourth inning fly ball “long gone if it’s fair” just moments before Carlos Lee made a leaping catch in front of the wall in left field. Drew, you gotta know what “long gone” looks like by now, especially before you call it as such. Nothing’s worse than calling something a home run (and essentially, that’s what Goodman did) before it ends up dying on the track or getting robbed. But hey, at least he didn’t say the ball was ‘tatered’.