Of course, by "must win" I mean for our playoff chances in 2008, as we already lost this season on Monday. I know some of you might think that with 321 games left before the playoffs next year that my putting this much importance on today might be a tad premature, but I'm telling you, a loss today to the Diamondbacks clearly establishes their superiority in the division and the entire NL for seasons to come and proves Dayn Perry, John Beamer and Joe Sheehan and everybody else on the bandwagon correct and we might as well just trade Matt Holliday right now to start rebuilding again. I'm thinking if we beat the Dodgers and Padres to the rebuilding punchbowl, we could get some of the good stuff and leave them with just ice.
Anyway, surprisingly after yesterday's win there's not much in the way of happy, yeay Rockies! Go Tulo! stories, particularly from one paper which includes a "Falling Rox" poll with today's notes column. Interesting note about MLB's spin on the Weiss/Castilla out of the clubhouse story. It has Joe Garagiola Jr going out of his way to say that there "was no official complaint" filed by the D-backs, and that it was an across the board rule enforcement, but one has to wonder about what's left unsaid. Or at least I wonder about that.
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Rockies Nation is clearly optimistic about our chances with Rodrigo Lopez taking the hill today. He was an Opening Day starter for the Orioles, after all, so it shouldn't be surprising that we expect great things of him. I SAID GREAT THINGS. I'M NOT LISTENING IF YOU'RE SAYING OTHERWISE, LALALALALALALA....
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So yesterday we established that the Rox have been better than the Nationals, today I think we could establish that we're better than the D-Rays, Pirates, and possibly Orioles as well. The Brewers are awfully high on those lists, too. That's maybe five teams we're better than. Woohoo! Only 24 left.
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Comparing last year's eleven inning win over the D-backs on April 3, with this season's version highlights a few important differences, mainly the bottom of the lineup providing some pop for the Rockies with two extra base hits yesterday, and also not relying on a lapse in the superpowers instilled by HGH to otherwise crumbling relievers to pull out the victory is a nice change of pace. Seriously, though, both these teams got better in all the right places filling holes they had last year. It will be an interesting race to the finish this season.
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Today should mark the first time we see Yorvit Torrealba, and perhaps others off our bench (start for Baker?) will take prominent roles as well against the lefty Davis. We'll also see how deep our pen is, as Affeldt and Buchholz figure to be prominently featured (plus some more BK) after our same four top guys were used in back to back games. The D-backs will likely counter with Miguel Montero and their own deep pen to spell some of their tired legs and arms.