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As hoped for yesterday, this series is showing every sign of being a repeat of the previous one in Colorado, earlier this month. The Rockies take the first, de la Rosa, shutting us down. We then mount a comeback victory in the second game, tagging the Colorado bullpen with the loss in the eighth inning. If that keeps up, we should expect another comeback victory today, but we'll tag Jimenez with the loss.
Of course, the big difference is, we don't have Dan Haren going for us today, but Jon Garland has been perfectly serviceable over his past few starts. After an inconsistent June, his July ERA in the four starts to date has been 2.42 , with a quality start every time. He also seems to have overcome his fear of pitching in Chase, two of those games having been at home. Opponents are actually batting a little higher - .280 in July, compared to .264 in June - but this is more than countered by Garland's control. He's only walked four people in 26 IP this month, compared to thirteen in 33 June innings. The net result is an opposing OPS of .678. This will, however, be his first career start in Coors. And the roof will be open...
It took us thirteen innings from Jimenez this season before we were able to get our first run off him. You may remember the last game, as that was the one where St. Penelope assisted Reynolds in breaking up the no-hitter in the sixth with a three-run bomb. Let's hope we don't need to resort to invoking her name again, though he has been pretty good against us, with a career ERA against Arizona of....dammit, baseball-reference.com is down, so I can't be sure, but I know it's pretty low. In the past five starts, it's 2.45, and given the parks in which those contests have taken place, tha's quite impressive. Overall, a victory would be significant, as a 3-3 road trip is, psychologically, a great deal better than a 2-4 one.
Line-up
- Stephen Drew SS
- Alex Romero LF
- Justin Upton RF
- Mark Reynolds 3B
- Miguel Montero C
- Chris Young CF
- Josh Whitesell 1B
- Augie Ojeda 2B
- Jon Garland P
Hooray. Josh Whitesell gets the start. Day game, so limited access for me, but I'll try and schedule my lunch-break round the crucial innings.