The Colorado Rockies Have Defeated Another Club In The Sport Of Based Ball

'Twas a rainy night in the city of Denver. A Rainy night rife with double rainbows and cool air, that blew over the feet of this writer as he laid on his couch after yet another painfully long week.

Meanwhile, the Colorado Rockies were struggling their way through a similarly miserably long week, one comprised of losses, of ineffective pitching, of flaccid bats. Along with the Rockies themselves, the fans were relatively drudging along, trying to enjoy the sport they love so deep in their hearts.

As if to answer the frustrations of everyone involved, the Rockies came through, scraping out a win against the Washington Nationals.

The Nats took a quick lead on a sacrifice fly off of the bat of Mike Morse, driving in Roger Bernadina from 3B.

From there, the Rockies looked from behind for another 3 innings before Johnny Herrera scored on a "single" by Ty Wigginton. Regrettably, this single came off of the face of Nationals' starter John Lannan.

Lannan was diagnosed with what was called a "Nasal Contusion". Basically, nothing was broken, he'll be back soon.

In the meantime, Ryan Mattheus was brought on to replace Lannan. Mattheus promptly got Mark Ellis to ground into a fielder's choice.

Amusingly enough, Mattheus balked while Cole Garner was batting in his first major league start, advancing Ellis to 2B and Helton to home. Nice to have that happen FOR us for once, rather than AGAINST us.

Garner then singled to left field, driving in Ellis, but as we've seen far too often with the Rockies this year, was caught heading to 2B, expecting the throw to go to home. First MLB hit, RBI, and rundown. Big day for Garner.

Up 3-1, Hammel allowed a solo shot from Wilson Ramos to cut the lead to 1.

Luckily, that's all that the Rockies needed, as Matt Reynolds, Matt Belisle, and Huston Street held the Nationals to 1 hit over the final 2.2 innings to lock down a much-needed tally in the Win column.

It wasn't the best pitched game ever by Hammel, whose strikeout numbers are still strangely absent in the 2011 campaign.

Carlos Gonzalez' first day back from a wrist injury sustained from a run-in with the CF wall in Coors Field didn't go so swell either, going 0-for-4. Mark Ellis' Rockies batting average dropped to .315 with an 0-for-4 day as well.

In fact, outside of Garner's memorable hit, Wigginton's "single", a Todd Helton single, and Johnny "Streakplug" Herrera's 2-for-3 day with a walk (we're going to call this the Mondogarage Special), the rest of the lineup went hitless. The Nats' bullpen allowed only 2 hits of their own after Lannan's departure. 

Wrap it any way you will, a win is a win.

via www.fangraphs.com

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