Somewhere in the baseball bible, the book the baseball gods adhere to, and the book baseball fans and players are not allowed to read, there must be a passage about not allowing any Rockies starting pitcher who's throwing well to remain healthy. I'm almost convinced of this.
The latest potential casualty in the long list of Colorado starting pitchers to commit the apparent sin of pitching well for the Rockies in a starting role is Tyler Chatwood. He was doing so again tonight until he had to leave the game after just four innings and 64 pitches with what is currently being called right triceps injury. Prior to the early exit, Chatwood allowed just one run that was knocked in on a hit by Todd Fraizer off a sinking pitch that was almost in the dirt. Chatwood struck out four while walking only one.
We'll have to see how much the baseball gods frown upon Chatwood's recent actions, but considering that he had a 1.14 ERA and just a .563 OPS against in the four starts coming into tonight, I wouldn't be surprised if his punishment is severe. That's the way these things usually tend to work anyway.
At the plate, the Rockies continued their boom and bust tenancies. After scoring seven runs in each of the last two games against the Dodgers, the Rockies offense once again fell into that malaise that's both frustrating and depressing to watch.
There have been nights this season where the Rockies offense ran into a buzz saw pitcher. Tonight was probably not one of those nights. Reds starter Bronson Arroyo and closer Aroldis Chapman combined for the team's league leading ninth shutout of the year, but Arroyo getting through eight innings in just 86 pitches suggests that he was getting a tremendous amount of help from the Colorado bats.
There was one point tonight that stretched over the Rockies fifth and sixth innings where Arroyo retired five straight hitters on just nine pitches. There was also the 8th inning where the Rockies went down on just four pitches. It was just a 1-0 game at this point, but it felt like 5-0 the way the Rockies were swinging the bats.
Josh Outman surrendered a two run home run in the bottom of the 8th off the bat of Jay Bruce to make it 3-0 before Manny Corpas made an appearance in which he was fortunate to get an out before he walked enough guys to gift Cincinnati another run. This was the fist outing of they year for Corpas's and I've already had enough of him - Even though his appearance tonight had no impact on the result of tonight's game.
Here's a really boring and depressing graph.
Source: FanGraphs
Total Commenters: 40
Total Comments: 1,286
BuSeaAir, CORockFaithful, CentralCaliRox, Chrysicat, Drew Creasman, ES46NE10, Jordan Freemyer, Kevin Mitchell is Batman, Kevin V. Minor, Mr. Rockie, Nephelimdream, Nick95, Northsider1964, PurpleToPurple, RhodeIslandRoxfan, RockedUp, Rockies7935, RockyMountainWay91, Rox the Casbah, Roxman4ever, SDcat09, Sjamb, The Lodo Magic Man, Thnikkaman, Traindogger, WanderingRoxFan, Yokel, barroz, butterfly, djmbluemoon, everever, evers44, holly96, idj2, nightninja13, nodakroxfan, personalspaceinvader, rockiesfan4ever, sleepyteak, steakman
Record: 30-28
Games Behind: 2.5
Games Left: 104
Record needed to beat Keith Law's prediction: 24-80
Record needed to beat 2012: 35-69
Record needed to beat the Vegas Over / Under Number: 42-62
Record needed to finish above .500: 52-53
Number of Home Runs needed for Cargo, Tulo, and Rosario to combine for 100: 65
* * * * * *
Game 2 of this series begins tomorrow at 5:10 p.m. Mountain Time and will feature a pitching matchup of Juan Nicasio (4-2, 4.79) vs. Homer Bailey (3-4, 3.84).
(If the Rockies don't want to get swept, it would be a really good idea to take that one since game three of the series is going to feature Jon Garland and Johnny Cueto.)