Although today's game marks the third of the season, Bud Norris is quite arguable the best pitcher in the Astros' rotation. That doesn't spell great news for the Rockies, who struggled mightily against Lucas Harrell in last night's contest. The good news, however, is that there is a rather large amount of improvement between the Rockies' second and third starters as well. Last night, Houston pounced all over Jamie Moyer and his 79 mile-per-hour fastball. Today, things will look a little different for them when they face Juan Nicasio, who sits in the 91-94 MPH range with ol' number one
Looking at the lineups, it can be argued that Jim Tracy is, once again, not giving his team the best chance to win on a Sunday as, among a couple of other changes, he has Jonathan Herrera in the lineup over Marco Scutaro and Tyler Colvin in for Dexter Fowler. The latter concerns me mostly for defensive reasons; the former because Herrera is so much worse of an offensive player than Scutaro, it's not even funny. We'll see how it all plays out an hour from now.
Full lineups after the jump...
Rockies:
1. Tyler Colvin (L) CF
2. Jordan Pacheco (R) 3B
3. Carlos Gonzalez (L) LF
4. Troy Tulowitzki (R) SS
5. Jason Giambi (L) 1B
6. Michael Cuddyer (R) RF
7. Wilin Rosario (R) C
8. Jonathan Herrera (S) 2B
9. Juan Nicasio (R) P
Astros:
1. Jordan Schafer (L) CF
2. Jose Altuve (R) 2B
3. J.D. Martinez (R) LF
4. Carlos Lee (R) 1B
5. Brian Bogusevic (L) RF
6. Chris Johnson (R) 3B
7. Jason Castro (L) C
8. Marwin Gonzalez (S) SS
9. Bud Norris (R) P