Rockies 5, Braves 1: Jason Marquis pitches well; Todd Helton waits for hit #2000

by Russ Oates on May 18, 2009 8:17 PM MDT in Rockies Game Wraps

The game thread asked, "Win?" The answer: "Yes."

This one moved along at a swift pace. Jason Marquis (.506 WPA) threw eight strong innings, allowing a run on five hits and three walks. Atlanta's Derek Lowe matched Jason Marquis in innings pitched but allowed two runs. The Rockies runs came as five separate RBI by Dexter Fowler, Todd Helton, Clint Barmes, Chris Iannetta, and Ryan Spilborghs.

Todd Helton appeared to have his 2000th hit in the ninth inning, but Yunel Escobar couldn't field the ball properly and was credited with an error instead.

The Rockies are now 15-22.

via www.fangraphs.com

Thanks to jrockies, Rockie4Ever, pedalpusher, TuLoRocks2008, Jabberwocky, holly96, biondino, dogs, fantasyfencing, FooMan, Poseidon's Fist, RoxnSox09, ES46NE10, Silverblood, OrangeTorpedo, WolfMarauder, coolopotamous, djmbluemoon, Rox Girl, ALrockies, RockiesMagicNumber, The Lodo Magic Man, dds_dave, befizzle, blakestlubers25, Maris6161, and RockiesDave for the conversations.

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Well, uhm, yay!

I didn’t tune in until the 7th, but finished it off from there. Toddfather was robbed of his 2k milestone tonight, but I won’t stew about it since it will most likely happen tomorrow. (No was Escobar fields that torcher cleanly.) So a win to start the series. Dare I say it? Keep it goin’ Rox. While I can’t bear the torture some nights, I really do still care.

The great thing about baseball is that there's a crisis every day. ~Gabe Paul

by rockhead on May 18, 2009 8:34 PM MDT reply actions

I think we all really care, rockhead. If we didn't, we wouldn't keep coming back time and again. Now I've got a question....

…Are we taking more called third strikes than usual, whatever usual is? I don’t know if it’s our pitch recognition or what. But lordy, it sure seems that we have way too many backward K’s.

Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?
Author: Jim Bouton

by pedalpusher on May 18, 2009 9:53 PM MDT up reply actions

It does seem that way

The problem with the backward k’s is that most of them, i think, are coming from the younger players (Dex and Stewart primarily). I have nothing against Baylor, or his methods, but the players not only need to have pitch recognition but the willingness to swing at the pitches that are strikes, or are close when they have two strikes on them. Last year they were told aggressive, this year patience. Find a happy medium and hit the ball.

Keep going Rockies, this is what we need, both for the fans and the players.

"There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem - once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit." ~Al Gallagher, 1971
JFK

by jrockies on May 18, 2009 11:25 PM MDT up reply actions

Helton

Just heard on SportsCenter that Hurdle is meeting with the official scorer before tomorrow’s game to try to get tonight’s ruling overturned.

I appreciate him going to bat for his player, but that would be a little anticlimactic. I’d rather it stay an error so we can have a proper celebration tomorrow (yep, it will happen). However, he may have Helton’s okay, in which case I won’t complain.

by holly96 on May 18, 2009 11:51 PM MDT reply actions

This may be strange

but I was kind of hoping it would be an error at first blush. That one hit won’t affect Helton’s season average much, much less his career average, and I was hoping number 2000 would have a little more legitimacy to it. So pretty much, what you said

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

by Andrew T. Fisher on May 18, 2009 11:54 PM MDT up reply actions