Rockies 3, Mets 1: Rockies Playing Some Decent Baseball
Lately

post from Purple Row on 21 August 2012 12:01:41 AM. © Purple Row

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 20: Manager Terry Collins #10 of the New York Mets argues a call with umpire Adrian Johnson #80 in the eighth inning against the Colorado Rockies on August 20, 2012 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

The Rockies won yet another baseball game against a team with a better record then themselves tonight, taking the series opener against the New York Mets.

There were a lot of positive things to take out of tonight's game, so let's get the negative stuff out of the way quickly.

Negative thing 1: Alex White tossed 83 pitches, 43 for strikes, and only lasted 4 innings.

Negative thing 2: Alex White ran 7 full counts tonight.

Negative thing 3: The Rockies had 9 baserunners and stranded 6 of them.

Negative thing 4: The Rockies were merely 1-for-5 with RISP.

Negative thing 5: Rex Brothers continues to be a powder keg.

Ok, that's enough of that.

Despite my seeming axe to grind lately with Alex White, he did look decent, striking out 4 batters with only 2 walks. He only drew 3 groundouts, but he battled through his 4 innings, allowing only 1 run in the 1st inning and only 3 hits. We've seen many a flash of really good from White, and I'm really hoping this guy can start to get more efficient with his pitches and begin to work regularly through the 5th and onward.

Guillermo Moscoso was very good tonight as well, pitching 2 innings and an out into the 7th, allowing only 1 hit and 1 walk while punching out 3 Mets.

Matt Belisle had that one awesome play where he beat Jordany Valdespin by seriously 1 inch to the bag to end the 8th inning.

The offense, while not stellar tonight, was good enough, showing a lot of hustle, a lot of hard running, and Tyler Colvin beat a knuckleball into the Citi Field upper deck to pull the Rockies even with the Mets at 1 in the 5th inning.

Colorado got their 2nd run in the 8th inning, when Johnny Herrera put down a sweet bunt up the 1B line and forced an error on Josh Edgin trying to snag Herrera at 1B. Johnny moved up to 2B, Chris Nelson sacrificed him to 3B, and then Herrera scored on a passed ball on catcher Kelly Shoppach. The insult to that injury is that Josh Thole didn't let anything past him with knuckleballer R.A. Dickey on the mound tonight, but the non-knuckleballer and Shoppach gave up the goahead run without a single hit.

Ramon Hernandez had a 2-out PH single to score Dexter Fowler to add a run of insurance in the top of the 9th, and Rafael Betancourt earned his 24th save of the season to give the Rockies their 10th win in the month of August (10-9).

We've been seeing some solid play from Colorado these past 3 weeks, and it's been very refreshing, when we consider how bad this season has gone.

Source: FanGraphs

PitcherIPHHRERBBSOpLIWPAM Belisle0.1000007.94.196G Moscoso2.1100131.05.136R Betancourt1.0100112.37.086A White4.0301240.82.069R Brothers1.1100223.05.029Total9.06016101.67.516
PitcherIPHHRERBBSOpLIWPAR Dickey7.0311261.22.293R Ramirez0.1000010.53.014J Rauch1.0201100.80-.073J Edgin0.2100002.04-.218Total9.0612371.22.016
BatterABRHHRRBIBBSOpLIWPAC Blackmon40000000.86-.087J Pacheco40000010.71-.071D Fowler21100211.16.156A Brown40000001.37-.123W Rosario40000001.37-.181T Colvin31211111.14.173R Betancourt0000000 D LeMahieu30000021.70-.135R Brothers0000000 M Belisle0000000 R Hernandez10101001.31.084J Herrera41100021.41.195C Nelson00000002.30-.008G Moscoso10000001.34-.033A White10100000.46.014Total313612371.22-.016BatterABRHHRRBIBBSOpLIWPAR Tejada40000101.26-.076M Baxter50200011.47-.029D Wright31100101.32.032I Davis30100121.98-.112D Murphy20101212.06.167S Hairston30000011.34-.099J Valdespin10000007.94-.196A Torres30100121.19.091J Thole20000010.86-.043K Shoppach20000012.71-.122R Ramirez0000000 J Turner10000001.47-.041R Dickey20000000.61-.030R Cedeno10000012.51-.058J Rauch0000000 J Edgin0000000 Total3216016101.67-.516