In extra innings tonight, handing the ball to Josh Fogg for long relief was the rough equivalent of handing someone a gun and telling him, “Kill me, and make it quick.” Of course, Fogg actually getting through an inning and a third before the most inevitable walk-off home run the Rockies will allow this season (I was kind of hoping it would be Carlos Lee for selfish, fantasy team-related reasons) was the equivalent of Fogg loading the gun incorrectly and then grazing you with his first bullets before finally putting it all to an end.
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The bottom line is this – we’re not wrong when we watch this Rockies team and think, “My God, this team can not catch a break.” We never get the benefit of a close two-strike pitch with two outs and runners on… it’s always strike three called. We never make the diving stab that saves the run late in the game – that’s always the other team, like when Matt freaking Kata robbed Dexter Fowler. Saturday night’s walk-off win was so much fun because that kind of thing just hasn’t happened to us – that blooper always gets caught, that ground ball never gets through, that comeback never materializes.
But the reason we aren’t wrong are because the Rockies aren’t any good, and a big part of not being any good is never getting those breaks when they count. It’s not a direct cause-effect relationship – if anything, it’s circular: the Rox can’t catch a break because they suck, because they can’t catch a break.
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Was talking to my mom on the phone during tonight’s game when they showed the Rockies commercial about what players do to help out around the house. My mom commented that she’s not going to be letting Garrett Atkins hang any pictures in her home. I responded that that prop wall in the commercial was the only thing Atkins had hit hard all year. Yep, we zipped right past ‘pity’ on the How I Feel About Garrett Atkins Scale and have moved on to the stage where I’m calling him ‘the late Garrett Atkins’ in general conversation.
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The frustration that is the Manny Corpas Experience continued tonight – he fanned Carlos Lee and Lance Berkman looking back to back to open the eighth with some of the nastiest stuff you can possibly throw. Then he got torched for back to back hits and had to battle to whiff Jason Michaels to end the inning. Manny, dude, you’re freaking GOOD when you’re trusting your stuff. Do it more often.
On a more positive bullpen note, Joel Peralta might not be terrible. That change-up looked fairly filthy tonight.
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If Troy Tulowitzki has to go on the DL… I give up. You win, Angry Tulo-Hating Baseball Gods. I don’t know what the kid did to anger you so, but you’ve made your point.
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