For much of the game, the Colorado Rockies did what they will have to do this season to get wins in bunches. Their starting pitching was just effective enough to get to the bullpen and their offense was strong enough to stay tied in the early innings and then take the lead once the game was turned over to the bullpen. But, with Walt Weiss wanting to get Tyler Chatwood several innings, he left the young righty in for the ninth and the Giants did what they did a lot of last year and rallied for four runs and the win. Weiss did turn to Daniel Rosenbaum when Chatwood couldn't get an out but all Rosenbaum did was allow an RBI single and then a three run home run to end the game.
Jhoulys Chacin was inconsistent today. He pitched well in the 2nd-4th, but both times he had a two run lead, in the 1st and the 5th, he gave the two runs right back to the Giants. He ended up with 4 and 2/3 innings with 4 earned runs. After McClendon finished off the fifth, Chatwood struggled through the 6th through 8th managing to give up only one run before the disastrous final frame.
There was a lot of good hitting by Rockies against Lincecum and several quality Giants relievers, with Cuddyer leading the way with three RBIs on two doubles and Tulo adding two RBIs with one double. The defense looked good as well, except for Ramon Hernandez waved at a blockable pitch in the dirt and then allowed a stolen base.Gustavo Molina relieved Hernandez behind the plate and helped Chatwood in the eighth by throwing out one would-be base stealer and picking off another base runner at first.
It was an unfortunate loss as both teams used starter quality players for the first two thirds of the game. A win against the defending World Series champs was achievable and could have brought some positive reinforcement. Its just spring training but it is never too early to get the mental advantage on a division opponent. Late game tomorrow night against the Reds, Go Rockies!