The final score was 3-2. A two run Matt Kemp bomb in the first inning was the big dagger against the otherwise solid pitching of Jorge De La Rosa, meanwhile the Rockies offense wasn't capable of capitalizing on most of their scoring threats. Seth Smith tripled in a run and scored on a Troy Tulowitzki single in the third to tie the game for awhile, but that was all the scoring the Rockies would do, and a two out Rafael Furcal RBI single in the sixth wound up being the difference.
Moving on, let's look at a couple of bigger picture items:
- The Rockies still haven't won a series against the Dodgers this season.
We can make excuses about not being at full strength, about the questionable strike zones or whatever, but at some point that we still haven't come to, the Rockies have to prove on the field that they are better than Los Angeles. This was the last regular season chance to do it at a friendly field. The Rockies now need to prepare to prove themselves in Dodger Stadium at the end of the season.
Our friends at True Blue LA won't like me saying this, but the Dodgers are a veteran team relative to the Rockies. Meaning we're getting better, they are pretty close to their peak. I'm not saying that our peak is going to be better than what the Dodgers are capable of over the next couple of seasons, just that the Rockies are still in a relative ascendant phase and catching up. If we're talking about next season, LA won't be able to count on 12-3 over Colorado again. Take some comfort in that. If we're talking about this year, read on:
Both teams now have to go out and take care of business before that last October series. Obviously, the Dodgers have a huge advantage with a four game edge and just 34 games remaining. The Rockies have a more challenging next series (at San Francisco vs. at Cincinnati for LA) and then both teams settle into three straight less challenging series. The Rockies best hopes for gaining back those four games will be when LA goes on the road, and in divisional series against rivals. The Rockies must have a better record against the other NL West teams (LA's 22-13 against them so far, the Rockies 21-14) and they must hope that the Dodgers 13/18 road heavy schedule weighs on them, even if it's against weaker opposition, while taking full advantage of a 19/12 home weighted schedule themselves.
If the Dodgers win at the same rate they have all season at home (8-5) and on the road (10-8) their record heading into the last series will be 94-65. In order to be even with them, and thereby be in a position to win the NL West with a best two out of three (because they've lost the head to head series, the Rockies would lose a tiebreaker) the Rockies need to go 22-9. This is a difficult, but doable task given how the team has performed since June and since there are so many home games left on the schedule, so by no means are the Rockies out of it. We will need to win at least one of the two San Francisco series, I think, and obviously St. Louis looms as a large, important series in the final homestand. Besides those, the series between now and our last chance in October are winnable. The Rockies need to push hard down the stretch, but the prize is still within reach.
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72 users is probably a record for a day game. Way to go guys!