Did something happen the last time these two teams met? Well, whatever did happen, neither team "much cares to think about" what happened after that night.

Hurdle jabbed at the reporters after being asked about Jake Peavy:

"How do you think the Padres feel about facing Aaron Cook?" Hurdle replied. "We've got Cook going. I feel good about that."

After those April showers of losses, why shouldn't the Rockies become May flowers? We have our best starter going against the Padres' best starter. At PETCO Park. How many innings does this game go?

When the owner says something, you probably can count on it happening:

"We will put him [Greg Reynolds] out there and see what he can do. He would have been up here last year if not for the shoulder injury," Monfort said. "In a perfect world, we would rather have him stay in Triple-A. But we aren't living in a perfect world. We have some issues."

Can we speed up time and have it be Sunday today? I'm excited for this debut.

Tracy Ringolsby says the Rockies have interest in prep shortstop Anthony Hewitt.

Doug Davis is cancer-free.

If it wasn't clear before last night, it must be today: expect to see changes to the rotation. Last night's "fifth-inning fiasco" may have been the tipping point for deciding Morales' rotation status. And Wells didn't help his cause to move into the rotation after his performance last night.

Morales isn't the only one in trouble, as Ubaldo Jimenez and Mark Redman are also walking a fine line. The article speculates that if both Jimenez and Redman continue to struggle, expect Jimenez to move to the bullpen and Redman to be cut loose. If both moves happen and Franklin Morales is demoted, who does that leave as possible rotation candidates? Well, Matt Morris doesn't appear to be an option, but Josh Towers and Greg Reynolds may be promoted. However, O'Dowd doesn't  sound too enthusiastic about promoting Reynolds now:

"Towers has been good, and Reynolds had a good start last time out. We would like to give Reynolds more time down there, though," said O'Dowd of the prized prospect.

Maybe a few more good starts by Reynolds and O'Dowd will be a bit more confident in him.

But as we all know, it hasn't been just the pitching. O'Dowd also had this to say:

"Frankly we deserve to be (10-16)," said O'Dowd, who is mulling over a couple of minor trades to improve the club. "It's a lack of execution. Our starting pitchers, overall, haven't performed. We haven't gotten big hits. We haven't run the bases well. There is no rhythm to our games, offensively or defensively."

Well, we have Cook on the mound tonight. What does that mean? Good pitching, no hitting. How about changing the latter tonight, guys?

Kosuke Fukudome didn't have anything on Brian Fuentes yesterday afternoon during the ninth inning. Neither did Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez, for that matter. That certainly was quite the first test for Fuentes in his return to the closer role: facing the heart of the Cubs lineup. How long will this move last?

Hurdle said it served no purpose to say whether the move would be temporary, since there is no way to predict how Fuentes and Corpas will perform.

"I think you do is what's best for the club," Hurdle said. "And that's to give the ball to Brian right now, get the heat off Manny, give him an opportunity to work his way (back). See how that plays out."

Sounds as if Hurdle will stick with this until Fuentes blows a few saves in a row, no?

Cook might have a new nickname soon, "The Terminator," if he keeps coming up big after the Rockies fall big time.

Tracy Ringolsby suggests two possible lineup changes, one Hurdle likely won't do and the other, possibly. Todd Helton moving to the two-hole has been bandied around before, but would Hurdle actually stick with such a move for long?

Mark Kiszla chimes in with a "This isn't October anymore for the Rockies" piece.

Next up, a weekend series against the Dodgers. We'll get our first look at Hiroki Kuroda tonight.

Okay, so I lied and apparently the fix wasn't as smooth as they made it out to be. Teaches me for being a corporate stooge and just rehashing the company line. At any rate, the good news is that the Rockies actually won the game this afternoon, Aaron Cook assessed our problem and then  took things into his own hands with eight solid to keep the bullpen off the field and two hits of his own to keep the offense rolling. What a guy.

Anyway, Scott Podsednik also looked sharp in relief of Willy Taveras with three hits, and Chris Iannetta hit his first homerun of the season. Matt Holliday doubled to start our two run eighth inning rally, and Ryan Spilborghs finished it with a run scoring single to give the Rockies their final margin.

In separate news, the Jamey Carroll trade was finally finalized, and the player to be named later turns out to be the player to be named right from the get go. Sean Smith comes full circle from being the reported player by Ringolsby to being pulled from the table, to being back on the table and shipped to Colorado.

Spilly knew exactly what to say about his at-bat right after he made that phantom catch:

"That was probably my favorite at-bat I've had in my entire life," Spilborghs said.

Cecil Cooper's not getting laughs out of that, having been thrown out of the game during his argument with home plate umpire Rick Reed: "[...] I thought they all blew it. Simple."

Not lost in all of this is the great start Cook had and the effective relief from Fuentes and Corpas. Hopefully Cook's start rubbed off on U-Ball and we'll see something similar out of him today. We want to see the new youngster outduel the at-one-time new youngster for the Rockies in Shawn Chacon. It'll be a "more special start" since all of Colorado will be able to see him pitch against his home state team.

Also found in that last link, we find out that Hurdle wants Morales to work on his move to first base in order to correct his balk problem and that Clint Barmes really is a super utility player as he'd be the emergency catcher if Torrealba and Iannetta both went down in a game. Second, short, third, pitcher, catcher, and he could play the outfield in a pinch. He's a man for all seasons.

The Giants will look to help all-glove, no-bat starting shortstop Brian Bocock by purchasing the contract of the speedy all-glove, no-hit shortstop Emmanuel Burriss. He's certainly off to a better start this year than he was last year in the minors. Probably won't help all that much, and McCovey Chronicles slogan of "All Outs, All Season" will still be true.

In former Rockie players news, Josh Fogg has joined Jeremy Affeldt in the Cincinnati bullpen after Matt Belisle was named as the starter for Monday's game, one Fogg had been schedule to start.

Clint Hurdle is considering making a few changes to the lineup today, according to this short entry from the Denver Post. So who gets the day off? Do we see Tulo sit, even though he says he doesn't want to? A change to the outfield this time around? The possibilities are not endless, but maybe Hurdle will get a hit with today's lineup. And no, I don't mean the 'H' column will have a '1' in it. I mean a lineup that collects a bunch of hits and scores enough runs to win today. I know I was just setting that joke up for someone.

Once Kaz Matsui puts his problems behind him and returns to the Houston lineup, the Rockies, Troy Renck speculates, could inquire into Mark Loretta's availability. Renck also notes that O'Dowd concedes that any long-term contract with Holliday will have to start at $100M. And have you forgotten that the Diamondbacks won a World Series in 2001?

Todd Helton hasn't lost his humor: " 'I have one ab now,' said Helton when asked about his trimmer, leaner physique." There are also updates on Redman and Vizcaino in that article.

Time for Cook to continue on his path to a breakthrough season this afternoon.

David Ohno mentioned in yesterday's game thread that he didn't know why Cook needs to have a breakthrough season, as Troy Renck has been consistently pushing during the spring. Well, sure enough, Renck has this:

For a team playing as poorly as it did at any point a year ago, Cook established a sense of normalcy. This is the kind of outing that can define a pitcher looking for a breakthrough season.

So, is Cook going to have a breakthrough season? If he follows his own comments we'll get out of him what we always expected:

"One thing that has been a problem for me has been something happens in the first inning and gets away," Cook said. "After I gave up that run, I stepped off the mound and told myself, 'Let's get going here.' "

Breakthrough season? What we always expected out of him? Whatever you want to call it, we definitely want to see more outings like last night instead of trips to the DL.

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Troy Tulowitzki's response upon hearing about Mark Grace's remark on Manny Corpas and vaseline during Sunday's game:

"So does he say the same thing when (baseball's best sinkerballer) Brandon Webb pitches?"

Zing!

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Let's hope U-Ball will also heed the advice Cook gave himself last night and get things going tonight. Less walks, fewer hits, and an inning or two more than last outing and maybe we'll see the start of a breakout for U-Ball.