fig. 1 Leonardo was an Abstractionist
The Rockies were beaten by a nefarious sect last night, Paul DePodesta is a third degree Aldersonian acolyte in the Abstractionist cult, Historical Baseball branch.
Walk, single, walk, homerun.
That's textbook Abstractionism right there, and it's the exact sequence of events in that dreadful fifth inning, followed by another multiple run homer after Jose Acevedo entered. Hopefully our team can get to the nearby St. Tommy Lasorda Cathedral and pay homage to the gods of littleball to get the taint off.
There were some positives to take from the contest, Clint Barmes got on three out of four times and took the ball for a deep ride with that other at bat, and though he negated himself once by getting picked off, he was integral to two of the runs we scored. Our defense was excellent, especially at the corners where Garrett Atkins made a couple of nice plays and Todd Helton made a nifty unassisted double play (the official Rockies [website http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/index.jsp?c_id=col] has a link to a video clip) to help Jason Jennings out of an early jam. One final positive note, Brad Hawpe is brutal to right handers normally, and late in games he's creating some really tricky matchups as a pinch-hitter, part of the reason he's four for seven in that role. Right now he's tied with three others for the second most pinch hits in the majors behind the Mets' Marlon Anderson.
Todd Helton's slump continues. He looked good in his first at bat, but after that nada. We're still waiting for and needing his offense to wake up, as besides our rookie catcher - JD Closser - who we can't expect too much from anyway, Helton's is the only performance that seems significantly off his historical standards.