There are certain teams in the league that if you're a contender, you want to make sure that you come out on the winning side of the stick in the season series to save yourself some of the pain that could come later in honorably losing to other good teams. Much improved as they are, the Washington Nationals remain a club that good teams should beat, and the Rockies took a big step in winning the season series against them by sweeping the double-header yesterday.
Finishing the job is up to Jeff Francis and our bats against Scott Olsen this afternoon. Win and the Rockies will wind up with a 5-3 series edge for 2010, lose and they split. It's sort of odd to be finishing a season series so early, but our divisional competition has been able to already take care of similar season series against second-division opponents, with the Dodgers winning their season series against the Pirates and the Giants already taking five games from the Astros with only four left to play
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Bad news on Huston Street:
Another Street setback could really hurt what's already an inconsistent bullpen. Here's hoping we get good news on Taylor Buchholz sometime soon.
More links after the jump...
- Rockies starters' return alters look of bullpen - The Denver Post - Francis' return means that Esmil Rogers likely gets sent back down. We've seen this before, Rogers' demotion and relative struggles in his starts with the Rockies will wind up being a litmus test for fans. The less enlightened among us will be unable to conceive that there's a learning process to playing the game at the major league level, and to them, Rogers will become a bum, a failed prospect. To the rest of us, that outcome hasn't been determined yet. What we do know is that he's not likely a top of the rotation quality pitcher, but we knew that already anyway.
- Whichever pitcher stays with the big league club, be it Rogers or Greg Smith, will likely start Wednesday as a result of Saturday's twin-bill.
- Name not only thing that makes Rockies' Chacin different - The Denver Post- We can't write off Jhoulys Chacin's TOR potential so easily.
- Krieger: Cy Young talk heats up for Rockies' Jimenez - The Denver Post
If Jimenez is number one, that makes the Rockies current rotation order after this last week's rain-outs:
- Ubaldo Jimenez
- Jason Hammel
- Jeff Francis
- Aaron Cook
- Jhoulys Chacin
By the time Jorge De La Rosa recovers it could be different, but as of right now he seems most likely to take Hammel's slot.
- Renck: Bringing Phillies must give up double vision with binoculars incident - The Denver Post - I agree with Renck's take on the binocular issue. The method and blatancy of the Phillies cheating in this case merited the Rockies response.