Tonight the Rockies start a very brief three game road trip against the Padres before coming home later in the week to face the D-backs. Our suddenly emergent little team is starting to get at least some attention outside of Denver, but with the Broncos season getting underway, it's doubtful they're getting much attention inside the city itself. The pitching matchup tonight looks tough if you're only going by records alone, but Park's record is one of the most deceiving I've seen in quite a while, including last year's Shawn Estes line. Cook's record is missing half a season, and as solid as he's looked, I fear there could be some cracks that could show up should he get in trouble.
As far as lineups go, after starting off on a tear, Xavier Nady has been slumping pretty badly the last couple of months, but then again so have most of the Pods. Meanwhile, our lineup was purring like a well oiled, Coors-flated machine against LA, and the Padres' pitching figures to only be marginally better than the Dodgers was for this series, but of course it's at Petco so the drop to sea level will even things out a bit. Predictions? A road sweep against the division leaders isn't out of the question, we came close to it a week ago, but I've got a pessimistic hunch that says we might lose two out of three this time down. Getting off well tonight and backing our best pitcher with a win will be key to the series at any rate, so let's just root for that.