How about speeding Zito on his way to another loss?

Go Rockies!

See, creeping closer. And you don't want to see the Wild Card standings widget since it's too long and the Rockies are, oh, 15 games behind Milwaukee.

Jason Grilli played a huge part in picking up the victory last night. According to FanGraphs, Grilli's WPA was .426, the most for last night. And he was doing it in high leverage situations, as his average Leverage Index situation was 3.02. Ryan Spilborghs, obviously, also made a huge contribution. He made the most of his one at-bat when he singled in the winning run. As Spilly says in the Denver Post's recap: " 'My attitude in that situation is that I can't fail,' Spilborghs said. 'If I get a hit, I am a hero. If not, I keep grinding.' "

Dexter Fowler explains what happened once he entered the game last night:

"All I saw when I peeked back was the catcher (Bengie Molina) step out like it was a pitch out. I thought I was hosed," Fowler said. "If I had gone, he probably would have made a perfect throw."

Franklin Morales, heading to instructs to work on his delivery, and Juan Morillo will both participate in winter ball later this the year. As Renck also mentions, Morillo is out of options heading into the 2009 season. You know, since someone on the internets erroneously reported that Morillo was out of options back in March, and Renck didn't even have the decency to mention where that was reported on the internets. Did you know that on the RMN's Rockies page there are links to Purple Row and other Rockies blogs? The Denver Post doesn't have any.

The Rockies nominated Jeff Francis for the Roberto Clemente Award, an award given to players involved with giving back to their community.

SB Nation launched a new blog yesterday, Blog Huddle. According to the introductory post, it will include:

Announcements of new blogs

Introductions of new features

Tips + tricks on using the platform

Scheduled downtime notices and outage explanations

Media mentions of our blogs and the network

General observations on the growth of sports blogging overall

Tri-City, W 6-3: Jonnathan Aristil allowed three runs in  five innnings, walking five and striking out six. Brandon Miller and Carlos Luna combined to allowed only one hit over the last four innings of the game. Erik Wetzel went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a double.

Casper, L 0-4: Two-thirds of Casper's hits last night went for doubles. The unfortunate part is that Casper had only three hits. Orlando Sandoval and Jose Rodriguez hit them. Carlos Martinez has a single and stole his 20th base. Edwar Cabrera fell to 0-4 after going six innings. He allowed four runs (two earned) on seven hits and a walk. He struck out five.

Asheville and Modesto start their playoff series tonight.

Go Rockies!

Will it be a September  to remember? Or how about a "Rocktember?" Davie Krieger's not really buying into the "Rocktember" thing, but he offers one or two positives to be taken from the season if the Rockies wind up doing their own thing in October instead of playing ball.

If Jorge De La Rosa can turn it around, as he continued to demonstrate yesterday, then maybe, just maybe. . . .

News and notes from Tracy Ringolsby:

• Call-ups: Dexter Fowler already, and to include Edwin Bellroin, Oscar Villarreal, Jason Hirsh, and Joe Koshansky
• Torrealba will have surgery on Wednesday.

So, yeah, Hirsh will finally make it back to the bigs this year, but the big story to follow from the call-ups is Dexter Fowler. Is the future now?

Colorado Springs, W 5-3: Mike McCoy hit a sac fly in the top of the ninth to break the 3-3 tie and Christian Colonel had an RBI single to give the Sky Sox a little cushion. In the fourth inning, McCoy hit his fourth homer of the season. Joe Koshansky and Chris Frey each hit a triple.

Greg Reynolds allowed three runs on 10 hits in 6 2/3 innings and struck out nine. Matt Daley allowed the tying run when he put one of the runners he inherited from Reynolds across the plate. Juan Morillo pitched hte last two innings, walked two, and didn't allow a run.

Tulsa, W 5-3: Dexter Fowler and Chris Nelson both went 3-for-5with two RBI, but it was Fowler who had them all go for extra-bases. He had two doubles and a triple. Corey Wimberly was caught stealing twice, but also swiped his 59th base.

Josh Hall allowed three runs in six innings after allowing four hits and walking four. Ryan Mattheus picked up his 17th save.

Modesto, L 6-7: Mike McKenry hit his 18th homer, a three-run shot, in the fourth inning. Victor Ferrante and Angel Cabrera each hit solo homers.

James Burok started the game and allowed two runs in three innings. Jon George, Tommy Baumgardner, and Austin Chambliss (making his first appearance for Modesto this season) held Bakersfield to one run over the next three innings. David Patton allowed four runs in the seventh inning.

Asheville, L 1-3: Everth Cabrera went 2-for-4 with a double, a triple, and his 73rd stolen base. Christian Friedrich allowed one run on four hits and two walks in five innings. The run scored on a first-inning homer. He struck out six.

Tri-City, L 3-5: Parker Frazier allowed five runs (three earned) on eight hits and a walk in six innings.

Casper, L 0-10: Delta Cleary had the only Casper hits last night. They did walk five times, but nothing got done. Ethan Hollingsworth allowed five runs (three earned) in four innings. He walked three and struck out five. Craig Benningson allowed three runs in 1 2/3 innings. Nick Schnaitmann, making his first appearance for Casper, allowed a hit and struck out one in one inning of work. Eric Schaler gave up two runs the next inning.

Go Rockies!

September: The last month of the baseball season for the majority of major league teams. It's always a little sad when you figure you're team won't make the playoffs--until they go on some magical run at the end of the season. But how often does that happen?

Who wants to labor today on Labor Day? Here's today's links:

Tracy Ringolsby's game recap looks at the Rockies's awful record in day games. The Rockies play another afternoon game today.

The RMN and the Denver Post both report on Yorvit Torrealba's plans concerning surgery, the latter reporting the surgery may happen within the next two days.

Spilly rejoins the Rockies today!!!!!

The Springs, L 6-9: Joe Koshansky hit his 31st homer, a solo shot in the ninth. Franklin Morales allowed six runs on five hits and a walk in 2+ innings. Matt Herges allowed a run in one inning of relief.

Tulsa, W 9-5: Chris Nelson's three-run triple in the middle of the fourth ripped open the scoring in this contest. EY Jr. had an RBI double earlier in the inning, and Jeff Kindel and Corey Wimberly each had RBI singles after Nelson unleashed the triple. Jeff Kindel knocked in two runs in the first. Dexter Fowler had three singles and scored twice.

Xavier Cedeno allowed four runs in four innings, but the relief corps held things in check (with some minor problems along the way). Tomas Santiago allowed only a hit in three innings but also walked three. Casey Weathers went 1 1/3 innings but allowed a run on three hits. He struck out two. Ryan Mattheus picked up the last two outs with little trouble.

Modesto, L 2-4: In the  fourth inning, Daniel Mayora hit his seventh homer and Jay Cox had a sac fly. That was all the offense the team has, as Mayora's homer was the only hit for the Nuts. Brandon Durden allowed three runs in six innings and struck out four.

Asheville, L 6-10: Brian Rike drove in three runs on a single and a double. Bo Bowman collected three hits, and David Christensen had two hits and an RBI. Robinson Fabian went one inning and allowed two runs. Joey Williamson went four innings and allowed three runs. 

Tri-City, W 7-0: Sheng-An Kuo and J.R. Murphy combined on a two-hitter yesterday. Kuo allowed both hits and struck out nine in 7 1/3 innings. Murphy struck out three in 1 2/3 innings.

The offense scored all seven runs in the second inning. Johnny Bowden started the inning off with a double, but after a Ryan Peisel walk and Austin Rauch single, Bowden was out at home on the force out Chad Lembeck hit into. After that, the scoridng started: a James Sims RBI single, a Derek Kinzler two-run double, and a Charlie Blackmon two-run single. After an Erik Wetzel sac bun and pitcher's throwing error, Patrick Rose put Charlie Blackmon across home plate. After a wild pitch, Johnny Bowden hit a sac fly to score Erik Wetzel, the seventh and final run.

Casper: Cancelled due to rain.

Profanity is acceptable at a PG, possibly PG-13 level in game threads or in other breaking news items (transactions, mostly) where knee jerk reactions are to be expected. In other posts, be more measured and careful with your responses. Take time to think them through and preview them before posting. [...] Even taking out most of the letters of profanity is not acceptable. For example, this is not something to do: "F------ng pitcher!"

That's from the rules and regulations. You agreed to them when you signed up--abide by them. Look, the reactions to Q's homer on Sunday were perfectly fine, but last night one commenter repeatedly violated this rule. Banned, and I've not decided on for how long. No more warnings after this one. I will delete and delete and delete. Eventually it will result in a banning. The rules need to be enforced and followed; if not, then what's the point of even having them?

Really, this isn't a huge problem because most everyone here does follow the rules. But this needs to be addressed from time to time.