Record: 22-16. Change on last season: +7
An odd day at Go Daddy. You may have noticed in your email box yesterday, spam messages with German subject lines - I certainly got them in my hotmail account. For some reason which totally escapes us, the support team at Go Daddy was getting hit with about ten messages per minute of German spam; it was almost a full-time activity to keep that from totally clogging up the system.
They've also installed flat-panel TV screens at both ends of the call center, which is a nice idea - let's see the D'backs game! Er, except all they actually play is the same four Go Daddy adverts, over and over and over... Hey, you don't need to sell us the products: we already like the company. And you can imagine how old a two minutes loop of commercials gets by the end of a ten-hour shift, Go Daddy girl or not. Seats with their backs to the screens will soon become hot property, I predict.
Back at Coors, it was our turn to crush the Rockies, by a whole six runs. [Hence the Deutsch subject, which translates as, "very good, wasn't it?", if I remember my classes from 20 years back] That might not sound much to you, but it's not just our biggest victory in the thirty-eight games we've played this year. The last time we won a game by more than six runs, was all the way on June 8, 2004, when we beat Baltimore 8-1 - a total span of one hundred and forty-five games.
It was clear from the start that this was a different game from Friday night. We surpassed our previous game's total score before the Rockies even got to the plate. And remember those three errors we committed? Consider them matched by Colorado in our third innings. And though the Rockies leadoff hitter in the first flew out to right, only one other pitch from Webb saw significant air until after the crowd sang about peanuts and crackerjack.
We pretty much played small-ball, Colorado style, with no homers and just three doubles - we only outhit the Rockies 12-9. Green had three hits; Snyder (3 RBIs), Tracy and Gonzalez two apiece. But I think what really turned this one in our favour was the seven walks. On their side, Colorado managed only two, with Webb allowing only one in eight innings of work. Nine hits and four earned runs may not sound brilliant, but in Coors, probably counts as a quality start - it certainly kept the bullpen fresh, with only Koplove seeing use.
After today, it's off to Houston, and it's looking like we'll keep a 12-man pitching roster for the moment. However, beyond that, we play Detroit and will likely recall Matt Kata, because we'll need a DH for that (I imagine probably Tony Clark), and carrying a three-man bench would seem pretty slim for a series. Ligtenberg would seem the most obvious choice, given his woeful performances so far.
And with that, off to take on Ze Germans once more. :-)