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Happy holidays!
The Colorado Rockies take on the Philadelphia Phillies in a major league baseball game today.
A major key in this one will be trying to score more runs than the other guys, or conversely, allowing them to score fewer runs than we do.
Juan Nicasio will be mostly in charge of keeping the Phillies off the scoreboard by trying to throw a hard round ball past the sticks they will be swinging in attempt to hit it.
He has been pretty good at this so far, only letting three and a half runs score for each nine innings he pitches, which is very good but odd since I can't recall giving up any half-runs recently.
He will also hope to pitch later into the baseball game if only so talking heads and fans will stop screaming about the overtaxed bullpen and Walt Weiss' quick hook. After going seven strong in his first start, Nicasio pitched five and then six innings in his follow ups. Powering through trouble has been a weakness of Nicasio's in that past and Rockies fans watch in anticipation hoping the small bout with consistency he has shown thus far is not short-lived.
The Phillies send Roberto Hernandez -- famous from the sentence "wait, who the carp is Roberto Hernandez?" -- to the hill to try to salvage a game from this series for the Phightin's.
Brandon Barnes, whose acquisition I strongly defended under the guise that he is an excellent late-game defensive option and bat against lefties, is of course starting against a right handed pitcher. Still gotta love that outfield defense though.
Also of note is how much Foxier second base looks today. Josh Foxy Rutledge is playing second and batting seventh.
#Rockies lineup for Easter Sunday vs. Phillies. pic.twitter.com/6hR8dN55t6
— Rockies PR (@RockiesPR) April 20, 2014