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The Colorado Rockies made some history today, and no, it wasn't the good kind.
Tyler Matzek has struggled with his command in 2015 and throughout his career but today was by far the fiercest that demon turned it's ugly head. He walked six batters in only two innings pitched, including walking three of the first four batters of the game. Of his 58 thrown pitches, only 20 went for strikes. That is the worst strike percentage thrown in at least 50 pitches since 2000, according to ESPN Stats and Info.
It was an odd game in addition to being a total disaster.
Between the fourth and sixth innings, Troy Tulowitzki committed what turned out to be a four-run error, Jordan Pacheco made an out by catching a foul tip with his bare hand, there was a play where the Rockies looked to have an easy out but the ball hit the umpire instead, and Nick Hundley was robbed of a three-run home run by Ender Inciarte who had himself quite the afternoon.
But ultimately, this was about as bad a game as a baseball team can play and still score seven runs. The Diamondbacks best hitter, Paul Goldschmidt, struck out four times and Arizona still scored 13 runs and left 10 men on base.
The Rockies did some stuff on offense, too -- including home runs from Drew Stubbs and Nick Hundley -- even getting to the all-important seven-run-taco-threshold, but it was all an afterthought and never felt like a legitimate threat.
Matzek wasn't making excuses after the game, acknowledging he felt a little off after eighth days between starts but adding, "That's something they have to deal with, too. I just didn't deal with it very well."
Manager Walt Weiss says that John Axford and Boone Logan will be available for the second game of the double-header but his use of the bullpen was head-scratching this afternoon. "It didn't go exactly as planned," Weiss said, "but I wanted to get those guys work."
I guess that explains why the manager used seven pitchers in a game that was a blowout from the very beginning.
I'm searching for something clever to say and it escapes me. Game 2 will almost certainly be better than Game 1.