To me, if there was a game where team leadership would show up to rally the troops and tighten the ship, it would be a divisional contest against a tough pitcher, where a win would mean taking a series, and a loss would mean leaving with a losing record. I would expect team leaders in a game like this would hold teammates to higher standards, no lazy efforts on fly balls on defense or wasted at bats on offense, knowing that it would take everything the team had to come out with a W...

Well, so much for that.

Of course, as a blogger from the confines of a sofa or wherever I decide to park my laptop, it's easy to write things like this while not actually being in the trenches and playing the game. I recognize that there's a skill level involved that I can only imagine to play at the MLB level. That still leaves me wondering, however, when and where the leadership this team spent so much in salary and player talent over the winter to acquire will actually start to show up in the boxscore. When we can expect the intangibles of a Michael Cuddyer to help Dexter Fowler not lollygag on a route or the fire of a Ramon Hernandez to help Wilin Rosario provide consistently tough at bats.

At any rate, Madison Bumgarner beat the Rockies today while striking out only two hitters, Rosario and his opposing pitcher Jamie Moyer. He held the Rockies hitless through five innings despite giving up a lot of contact. On the other end, Moyer also gave up a lot of contact, but through the gifts of a couple more well placed bloops and one egregious misplay by Fowler, came away with the 4-2 loss.

Tulowitzki, Cuddyer and the Rockies made a bit of a late stab to come up with a tie or win against Giants closer Brian Wilson, but even that rally proved feint, a light meaningless jab which only served to punctuate that what it took to win this particular game wasn't present in the first place as the troops ultimately failed to follow the course those two leaders set.

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