So yesterday was the first time former high school teammates Jeff Francis and Justin Morneau played against each other . Francis was a bit of a keener giving up that homerun, I thought, eh? Francis at least got the last laugh with the win over his friend, breaking into the W column for the first time in 2008.
Francis wasn't the only Rockie to break a streak of ineptitude, Clint Barmes, the pride of the Wabash Valley, broke a team stretch of 42 innings without a homerun with his solo shot yesterday. Todd Helton followed later with a blast of his own. We're still waiting for Hawpe and now apparently Holliday too to break out of their power droughts.
Some players the media will show a lot of love to, some they won't. It's the same way with this blog at times, I'm aware of that, and I appreciate when we're called out for showing favoritism. At any rate, Jeff Baker seems to be a guy that gets good press -over the last few games deservedly, too- while Omar Quintanilla just doesn't. When Q came up to replace Nix and was on fire for his first few games, there were few mentions. After going hitless while coming off the bench yesterday in his final at bat, Q's now zero for his last fourteen, a fact I know because that Rocky Mountain News article linked above brought it up:
. . . Jeff Baker started his fourth consecutive game at second base and has gone 3-for-6 in his past two games. Baker has recorded at least one hit in 10 of his 12 starts. . . . Omar Quintanilla is hitless in his past 14 at-bats. . . .
Not mentioned is that Q scored the first run of the three run seventh that put the game out of reach after drawing a lead-off walk, one of just two times we got the lead-off guy aboard yesterday, nor that most of that hitless stretch came on our recent road trip -including two starts at PETCO- while Baker's recent decent streak has occurred at Coors and Chase Field.
Fact is, both Baker and Quintanilla have had the vast majority of starts at hitter friendly venues, nine of twelve for Baker including starts at Coors, Chase and one at Minute Maid, while Q had seven of his nine starts in either Coors or Chase Field. This actually means that neither of them have really been much, if any, of a positive for the team thus far when looking at their sum contributions, so I probably should open the second base question that I checked yesterday right back up.