Game #49: Francis vs Vargas

The Colorado Rockies announced today that the club has placed infielder Clint Barmes (right knee sprain) and outfielder Brad Hawpe (right hamstring strain) on the 15-day disabled list. The roster move for Barmes is effective today, and the move for Hawpe is retroactive to May 21. To take their places on the roster, outfielder Seth Smith and infielder Ian Stewart were recalled from Triple-A Colorado Springs. Both players will be in uniform for this afternoon’s game against the Mets at Coors Field. Smith will wear No. 25 and Stewart will wear No. 24.

Barmes, 29, owns a .343 (46-for-134) average with 5 home runs and 20 RBI in 39 games for the Rockies this season. He was 2-for-5 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI last night before leaving the game with a sprained right knee in the 10th inning. Barmes, who has been the Rockies’ primary shortstop since Troy Tulowitzki went on the Disabled List on May 3 (left quadriceps tendon tear), had hit safely in 14 of his last 15 games at .431 (25-for-58). Entering today’s game, he ranks 5th in the National League in batting average during the month of May (.391).

In all or parts of 6 seasons with the Rockies since 2003, Barmes owns a .263 (288-for-1095) average with 24 home runs and 135 RBI in 310 games. He has appeared at four different positions during his tenure with Colorado (SS, 2B, 3B, CF), spending the majority of his time at shortstop (256 games).

Hawpe, 28, hit .231 (33-for-143) with 3 home runs and 17 RBI in 42 games for Colorado. He last played on May 20 vs. San Francisco and went 0-for-3 with an RBI. The Rockies’ primary right fielder was hitless in his last 12 at-bats. Earlier this season he reached base in 24 straight games (April 2-29), giving him the longest game on-base streak of his career.

The left-handed hitter has 66 career home runs in 487 career games with the Rockies since 2004. Last year he became only the third lefty in Rockies franchise history to have multiple 20-home run seasons.

Smith, 25, hit .321 (51-for-159) with 6 home runs and 30 RBI in 45 games for the Sky sox in 2008. He appeared in 7 games for the Rockies last season, hitting .625 (5-for-8) in his major league debut. He was added to the Rockies postseason roster as an injury replacement and recorded his first major league RBI in Game 4 of the NLCS vs. Arizona.

Stewart, 23, was batting .281 (48-for-171) with 12 home runs and 43 RBI in 46 games for the Sky Sox this year. He was selected Pacific Coast League Hitter of the Week in consecutive weeks (weeks ending May 11 and May 18), going 19-for-46 (.413) with 13 runs scored, 5 doubles, 2 triples, 6 homers and 21 RBI in that span. Stewart played in 35 games for Colorado last year and hit .209 (9-for-43) with 1 home run and 9 RBI in his first major league appearance.

According to the RMN blog, Holliday and Ryan Garko are the only two players over the last four seasons to tie a game in the ninth with a homerun and then win it with a walk-off hit.

The Mets lineup today looks like this:

1. SS Jose Reyes
2. 2B Luis Castillo
3. 3B David Wright
4. CF Carlos Beltran
5. RF Fernando Tatis
6. 1B Carlos Delgado
7. C Ramon Castro
8. LF Nick Evans
9. P Claudio Vargas

But I haven’t seen ours yet. Like I mentioned in the Dark Ops piece, don’t think because Evans is a call-up that he’ll be easy for Francis, as he hits really well against southpaws. In a lot of ways this lineup looks more dangerous than last night’s.

I love Seth Smith.

What makes me not excited about this game is GEANIE ZALASCO or however you spell that stupid name.

Yuck.

jeff francis have a good solid game?

Can the Rockies score 4 runs?

Francis hasn’t given up a run yet

must locate.” Let’s see him do that today.

jeff…....there you go

behind every hitter….this is going to be a long afternoon

Hate those.

Herrera and Q are glove first players, right?

wow…....the rockies suck

I don’t like Wright’s career numbers against Francis.

ball four…..single 2 walks, and a 2 stolen bases…...great, just great

BAM!

I think a healthy Tavares might have gotten to that ball.

I’m officially, not a jeff francis fan

say what?

That I love Rockies first innings?

INFINITY!

Get an out…just one out

one out.

gets an RBI double in his first at-bat. Yay . . .

at this pace, we may only give up 20 runs today.

But if we today, we get TACOS! (like this offense can score 7 runs)

and I think we have the crappy match up

Francis really has fallen in my book, even more than I realized

Welcome back to the bigs Seth and Stew, this is the team you have to save. No pressure.

or are we not doing as well as the Mets did in the first?

His old eyes aren’t getting the borderline calls anymore…

(not in that case, but you get my point)

three ground outs for the southpaws while right handed Holliday hits the HR. Why isn’t our platoon advantage working like theirs?

you have issues.

and I have stuff to do today, but watch this crap.

Didn’t miss getting a hit by much.

Unfortunately, all these almosts aren’t going to cut it when our starter’s giving up no doubters.

At the beginning of the season, today’s lineup is what I would have expected to see in the Springs if Holliday and Helton were both on rehab assignments.

Now it’s the best we can offer for national TV.

Long season. Loooooooong season.

6-1??? What is wrong with Francis? The dude has completely melted down. Kind of glad I have to go swimming and make steaks now instead of being able to stick around for this one.

Two extra base hits since the first, but otherwise he’s been effective. We’re going to need to get some more solid contact the second time through the lineup if we want to get back into this one, though.

Francis scores on Herrera’s single!

coming through again! I do love this kid.

for a Holliday double.

how is everyone today?

Presupposing that was that we were still making contact in the first place. That was not a pretty inning from the future.

has really settled in since the first couple frames. It’s too bad he’s already passed the 100 pitch mark, and with him set to come up this inning, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a pinch-hitter. Okay, I expect to see one, but really, I’m so often wrong when it comes to Hurdle that I have no idea.

would be fantastic.

I’ve been pretty sporadic about my game thread participation this season, so are threads usually this stagnant on Saturdays? Game thread participation trends have always interested me. And I’m just looking to stir up conversation, heh.

Stewart looks overmatched. I really wanted to see him stay in Colorado Springs this season, but with the injuries it’s hard to argue against him being brought up. I’m definitely real bummed by these developments.

Russ, Rox Girl, thanks for answering my myriad of questions and putting up with me. Good luck to our guys, but I really have to get outta here for now. Hopefully I’ll see y’all around these parts soon.

bored out of their minds by this game, or even paying any attention anymore?

Nick Evans’ work today be transferred to the Rockies?

Who only Mets fans have real interest in outperforming our supposed blue-chippers? Come on Ian and Seth, it’s not that hard, see?

It’s not going to change the status of the team much, but maybe we should give somebody like Daley a look.

Last call, put your thirty in now if you haven’t.

baseball still being played, but I just don’t care. Josh Newman just served up a gopher ball.

He just got a hit in his first MLB at bat for the Twins.

a good day to be away from the TV. Ouch. After last night’s clutch win, I had hoped for better than 9-2. Sigh.

Rox will rule in 2009!

Aaron Cook gets the start Sun against John Mayne & the Mets, Jorge De La Rosa starts on Mon’s game against the Phillies on Mon @ Philly.