The Rockies look to complete the sweep Sunday afternoon against the San Diego Padres and get off to an April best 5-1 start. But first the will have to exercise the Sunday demons that have haunted them the past couple seasons. The Rockies struggled on Sundays in 2012 to the tune of a 5-22 record, but if starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin can build on his opening day performance the Rockies should be ok. Chacin allowed just one run on three hits in 6.2 innings against the Brewers on Opening Day.
In an attempt to alleviate the Sunday struggles the Rockies have pushed the start time back of this year’s Sunday games from the usual 1:10 PM MT start to 2:10 PM MT. If nothing else hopefully that extra hour of rest or preparation can give the Rockies the mental edge they need to perform on Sunday’s. Another reason the club has had difficulty on Sundays is that they always seem to run the bench players out there as starters.
Today’s lineup features that same strategy as 4 of the regulars will be getting the day off including Troy Tulowitzki. There is no injury with Tulo just a scheduled day of rest for the star SS.
For the Padres Edinson Volquez will start. Volquez struggled in his season debut against the Mets allowing 6 runs on 6 hits in just 3 innings of work.
Rockies fans may be upset about the lineup we are running out there today but at least against the Padres it should work. Perhaps this is more of a strategic move to have our main guys get rest against a team that we might not necessarily need all the starters. Only time will tell if they feature a different lineup every Sunday as in years past or if a better opponent produces a better lineup.
Rockies:
1. Eric Young Jr. RF
2. Dexter Fowler CF
3. Carlos Gonzalez LF
4. Wilin Rosario C
5. Jordan Pacheco 1B
6. Reid Brignac 2B
7. Chris Nelson 3B
8. Jonathon Herrera SS
9. Jhoulys Chacin P
Padres:
1. Evereth Cabrera SS
2. Will Venable CF
3. Mark Kotsay RF
4. Yonder Alonso 1B
5. Jedd Gyorko 3B
6. Chris Denorfia LF
7. Alexi Amarista 2B
8. John Baker C
9. Edinson Volquez P
Go Rockies!!