Ubaldo Jimenez beat his childhood hero, Pedro Martinez, last night:

"He's been my hero ever since I was little," Jimenez said. "I loved the way he pitched; I tried to never miss his games. He was aggressive and you could just see it in his face. It didn't matter who he faced, he was going to get them out."

And in beating his hero, Jimenez not only won his first game since April 8, but he also pushed the Rockies back out of last place and into a tie for third place with the Giants. The Giants lost to our next opponent, the Royals, last night. The Giants send TIm Lincecum to the mound to oppose the Royals' Kyle Davies. Winner takes the series.

Troy Renck mentions that Cedrick Bowers will be considered for a call-up this week when the Rockies look to add a left-hander. At this point, we've already seen what the others have done for the Rockies (Rusch, Redman, and Bowie), so taking a look at Bowers may not be a bad thing. There's also a quote there from Dan O'Dowd about Franklin Morales: 

"Franklin's not even on the radar right now," Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd said. "He can't help us right now. And he might not be able to help us this season."

Todd Helton believes he's over "a little issue" he had, and Kip Wells pitched in a simulated game yesterday in preparation for a rehab start later this week.

Clint Hurdle still wants Willie Randolph coaching in the All-Star Game after the Mets fired him.

Colorado Springs, W 11-9 - Seth Smith went 2-for-4 with a double and three RBI. Two of the RBI came on two sac flies. Cory Sullivan collected four hits in six at-bats, scored three times, and had two doubles. Kenny Perez hit a two-run triple, and Sean Barker drove in two.

Things went mostly well for Glendon Rusch through the end of the fourth. He allowed a run and some hits, but it was the fifth that hurt him. He allowed two singles to start the inning and then saw both men score on a double. After putting another runner on base, Rusch allowed a two-out three-run home run. He would pitch another 1 2/3 innings, leaving after 6 2/3 IP. Matt Daley finished the seventh before giving way to Micah Bowie in the eighth. He struck out one and allowed one hit. Josh Newman allowed back-to-back doubles in the ninth and then saw a pop up to short turn into a two-run single. Another double scored the third run of the inning. Steven Register recorded the final out for his ninth save.

Tulsa, L 5-9 - Brandon Hynick allowed eight runs on 12 hits in seven innings. Three of those 12 hits went for home runs. Dexter Fowler had a big night, going 4-for-5 with two doubles (18), but drove in no runs. Tony Blanco hit his 10th homer, a solo shot in the eighth.

Last week the Tulsa World's Barry Lewis sat down with Rockies assistant general manager Bill Geivett for a Q&A.

Modesto, L 4-6 - Aaron Cook won this game. No, not our Aaron Cook. The Angels have an Aaron Cook, a reliever. Anyway, Simon Ferrer had another solid start, allowing three runs over six innings on five hits and two walks. Andy Graham came in for the seventh and blew the lead by allowing an RBI single and a two-run double. He also pitched the eighth and saw a double play end the inning.

Travis Becktel and Anthony Jackson had RBI singles in the fifth to put the Nuts within one of Rancho Cucamonga. In the seventh, Mike Paulk's double scored Troy Tulowitzki, and Aaron Cook hit Mike McKenry with the bases loaded, putting the Nuts ahead 4-3. Tulo had three hits, two were doubles.

Brian VanderBeek interviewed Andrew Johnston this week.

Asheville, L 3-5 -  Kevin Clark went 3-for-5 with his seventh homer and two RBI. Darin Holcomb drove in the other run. Mike Mitchell had three hits. Connor Graham allowed three runs over five innings, walked four, and struck out five. Craig Baker allowed two runs while pitching the final two innings of the game, leading to the loss.

The Tourists will at least tie for the first-half division championship if they lose today and Charleston wins, but if the Tourists win today that would be better. As Darin Holbcomb said, “Our mindset (Sunday)? We come out and we kill these guys[.]”

Colorado Springs. L 2-3 - Jayson Nix had his eighth homer and Dustan Mohr hit an RBI double to score the runs.

Glendon Rusch made the start for the Sky Sox and picked up the loss. He allowed three runs over seven innings. Micah Bowie pitched the other inning and allowed two hits.

Tulsa, W 12-3 - In the bottom of the first, the Drillers countered NW Arkansas' sac fly with five runs. Matt Miller and Jeff Kindel had RBI singles before Daniel Carte hot a three-run homer (7). In the bottom of the fourth Miller had another RBI, and Kindel had a sac fly. No, Daniel Carte did not have another home run. Jeff Dragicevich hit a grand slam (9) instead. Kindel (4) homered in the sixth to score the twelfth run. Dexter Fowler had three hits, Eric Young Jr. stole his 14th base, and Corey Wimberly swiped his 28th base.

Brandon Hynick allowed all three runs (two earned) in seven innings. The last two came in his final inning. He walked two and struck out three.

Modesto. L 3-4 in 11 innings - In regulation innings, this game was tied at one. Travis Becktel had an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth. In the bottom of the 10th, Nick Haley's RBI single put the game into another inning of baseball, but Stockton scored two in the top half of the inning. With two outs, Anthony Jackson scored in the bottom of the 11th on a fielding error by the center fielder, followed by a Victor Ferrante strikeout to end the game.

Simon Ferrer made the start and did well. In five innings, he held the Ports to only a run on five hits and a walk. Chris Malone and Will Harris each had two innings of no-run ball before giving way to other pitchers in extra innings. Andrew Johnston allowed one run on three hits in the 10th, and Andy Graham allowed two runs in the 11th on a three hits (the runs scoring on a double and a single).

News and notes from Brian VanderBeek's latest blog entry: Aneury Rodriguez received a five-game suspension, and the others three games; Troy Tulowitzki is rehabbing with the Nuts; Geoff Strickland was released; Todd Ritchie starts for the Nuts tonight.

Asheville - No game scheduled. The Tourists can clinch a spot in the playoffs this week.

Last night's game was oh so much fun to watch . . . if you were a Phillies fan. I mean, it apparently "exorcised a few demons" the Phillies acquired back in October when the Rockies swept them. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Phil Sheridan points out the, uh, obvious:

The Colorado Rockies couldn't have enjoyed getting pounded by the Phillies last night. You can be just as sure they wouldn't trade their last three victories over the Phils for a reversal of this outcome. . . . It's a long way from May to October, but the Phillies have survived the journey from October to May. Ask the Rockies how hard that can be.

Yeah, but can the Phillies survive the  journey from the end of May to the end of September?

Clint Hurdle on Jorge De La Rosa's status with the team:

"It wasn't a step forward," was all Hurdle said when asked about De La Rosa's future.

If he's still in the rotation come Saturday, DLR and his 9.00 ERA will face Ryan Dempster and the Cubs.

Injury updates: Garrett Atkins may be back tonight; Ryan Speier will join Asheville on Wednesday for a rehab assignment; Jason Hirsh and Luiz Vizcaino threw in simulated games and will rehab with the Sky Sox starting this weekend; Micah Bowi's throwing BP sessions; Brad Hawpe's right hamstring is feeling better. Are you?

Bob Apodaca on Yorvit's performance Sunday:

Revisiting Aaron Cook's complete-game four-hitter against the Mets on Sunday, Apodaca heaped praise on catcher Yorvit Torrealba: "It was like they were reading each others' minds. That's how well-called a game that was from Yorvit."

Torrealba went 0-for-2 with a sac fly.

U-Ball vs. Kyle Kendrick tonight.

So, the biggest problem during last night's game was a) the failure to successfully execute run-scoring plays with men on base, b) a bullpen that couldn't hold a one-run lead, or c) both a & b? Maybe Ryan Speier should have entered the game, since it seems that was the turning point in the game, according to the second link:

So it was that the turning point came when Speier turned around and jogged back into the bullpen. Working in his fourth game in five days, Fuentes suffered a second consecutive hiccup [...].

Actually, Fuentes had pitched in five of the last six games after his appearance last night. And the game Fuentes didn't pitch in was Friday's opening victory against the Astros. That's back-to-back-to-back games for Fuentes. According to Josh Kalk's study on the use of relief pitchers, a reliever loses about a mile and a half per hour on his fastball when pitching three straight days. Just something to note.

Also, part of the confusion over who was going to come in to replace Bucky is a result of Bob Apodaca dealing with a family matter. Bullpen coach Rick Mathews moved to the dugout, leaving the pitchers in charge of the 'pen. Fuentes thinks the mix-up occurred as a result of Micah Bowie incorrectly taking the call. Well, that was not the worst thing Bowie did last night. The Rockies do not know when Apodaca will return to the team.

Let's see less of the bullpen tonight and more of Jeff Francis.

Even though they weren't the first to use it, the Rockies are close to securing key trademarks for the term "Rocktober", which amounts to a nifty coup and adds a lot of value to the Rockies brand. Since better branding equals greater revenue, which equals greater chances for building championship teams, I'm actually as excited for this news as I am for our current three game win streak. Now let's get back to the playoffs so the team can cash in from this some more and re-sign Matt Holliday.

Speaking of playoffs, I'm also excited for Joe Sakic and the Avalanche, if anybody hasn't had the chance to check out our excellent bloggers at Mile High Hockey, I encourage you to take the opportunity right now. Woot. Corporate Thursday, see how I just built our SBN brand right there? Yeah, I'm all about selling out today apparently.

It looks like Jeff Baker will get another chance at starting at second today (weather permitting) and Taylor Buchholz is feeling fine in his relief role. Those are two of the several notes from the Denver Post this morning.

I know there's some disagreement here on the merits of Micah Bowie, as should normally be expected for the last guys in the bullpen on any team. I still think we made the right decision with him over Josh Newman this Spring, as Jack Etkin points out, he's stranded all seven baserunners he's inherited. Of course, thanks to his three run tenth inning outing against Arizona, he's drifted to the bottom of the pack in Rockies WXRL (it's as complicated as the acronym makes it sound, but it's as decent a way of measuring relievers as I've seen) so the debate must go on. It's still early, we'll see if his smoke and mirrors act remains as successful as it's been up to this point.

Woody Paige's editors left some stuff out of his column on Kip Wells this morning:

He began 2000 as the No. 2 starter for the White Sox... and had a 6.02 ERA that season.

He had back-to-back earned-run averages of 3.58 and 3.28 (and 22 victories) with the Pirates, but they gave up on Wells in 2006... after back to back to back ERA's of 4.55, 5.09, and 6.69 (and 30 losses) for Pittsburgh over the next three seasons.

He was shipped to Texas for a minor-leaguer... because no team was dumb enough to offer more than Jesse freakin' Chavez for Kip Wells. Then, it was on to St. Louis, which gave up on him.., after 17 losses and a 5.77 ERA, and now, Colorado... who would be wise to realize that over the last four seasons Wells' teams have gone 32-61 in his starts.

He earned the right to be in the Rockies' rotation a bunch of money. He earned respect, if not revenge one win. We need to see some more.

I don't want to take anything away from what was a very good start by Kip last night, and certainly I remain hopeful he proves worthy of his contract, but he did have very good starts early in the season for St. Louis last year before things went South quickly. Let's not put too much into the results of one game just yet.

The same wait-before-passing-judgment caveat should be said for Jayson Nix, but coaxing two walks from the eighth slot in the lineup was as an encouraging sign as Wells' performance. The eighth slot walk didn't happen frequently enough early last season for the Rockies-albeit Chris Iannetta and Jamey Carroll did a lot more of it later in the year- so it's nice to see the change. It's one of the little things that the Padres in particular have been very good at over the last few seasons: taking advantage of opponents' being too careful before the pitcher to flip the lineup. Nix saw a total of seventeen pitches in four plate appearances,  when compared to Willy Taveras -who saw just twelve in five PA's- he comes off looking particularly well.

Taveras was just miserable all around at the plate -the one notable home plate slip on a potential infield single inclusive- but I found his fifth inning fielder's choice out to shortstop particularly troubling as it followed an equally aggravating failed bunt attempt by Wells to move Jayson into scoring position after his first walk. Having to endure relying on small-ball tactics on nights like yesterday is bad enough, having to endure poorly executed small-ball is excruciating. Taveras and Brad Hawpe (who at least saw 24 pitches) were the only two in the lineup to fail to connect solidly on at least one occasion, everybody else either had solid hits or just missed moments, so I don't think we need to worry about the O tanking just yet.

At any rate, let's give lots of credit to our bullpen for the victory yesterday, Micah Bowie, Taylor Buchholz, Brian Fuentes and Manny Corpas  allowed just two singles (one of the weak infield variety) and a walk in three and two thirds innings. Conspicuously -and most thankfully- absent was Luis Vizcaino. I know the team signed him with the expectation that he would have been the one to call on in the seventh instead of Buchholz, so that Hurdle didn't allow a LaTroy Hawkins-esque Opening Day disaster come to pass is a credit to our manager's ability to learn his lessons. Speaking of learning high leverage lessons from last year, compare Bowie's appearance to the first time Jeremy Affeldt came into the game with runners on in a one run ballgame in 2007. As Tracy Ringolsby points out, the new faces in 2008 are so far looking alright. Let's hope that trend continues today.