Kuzul

For the second time in five days, the Rockies were fighting not for a victory, but for a single hit. Anibal Sanchez, who threw a no-hitter in his rookie season of 2006, took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before Dexter Fowler slid a ground ball into right field to break up the no-hit bid. Ironically, after the top half of the first inning, the Rockies held the lead. Fowler led off with a walk, then moved up to second base on a passed ball, then moved to third base by Jonathan Herrera, and scored when first baseman Gaby Sanchez dropped a perfect throw from third base on Troy Tulowitzki's grounder. The Rockies were in a similar boat on Monday, when Tim Lincecum was given a five-run lead in the first inning and was able to relax and dominate the Rockies offense. Jhoulys Chacin started on the mound for the Rockies ...

After their second straight lackluster performance in a row, the Rockies offense had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs. With a struggling Ryan Spilborghs coming to the plate (6-for-35 on the season), and Ramon Ramirez, a righty on the mound, it seemed like a no-brainer that Jim Tracy would call upon Jason Giambi to pinch-hit and take a shot at tying the game up. Instead, Tracy allowed Spilborghs to hit, and from the first pitch it was clear that he had no chance at the plate. After four pitches, Spilborghs was dispatched, not coming within a foot of Ramirez's split-finger, and the inning was over. Obviously there was no guarantee that Giambi would have come through in that situation. He may very well have struck out, just as Spilborghs did. However, there is one reason, and only one reason, why Giambi is a member ...

Alan Johnson won't soon forget his Major League debut. However, it probably wasn't what he originally dreamed of as a kid. The righty rookie only lasted four innings, giving up five runs (four earned) on six hits. He walked three and struck out three. He threw 93 pitches in the process. Despite a rough outing for Johnson, the Rockies offense bailed him out, although it came within a pitch of blowing a great scoring opportunity. Dexter Fowler came through for the Rockies, knocking a two-run double into right-center field with two outs and two strikes in the bottom half of the eighth inning. With the game tied at five, Ryan Spilborghs led off the eighth inning with a base hit off the glove of Cubs reliever Marcos Mateo. Jose Lopez then failed on two consecutive bunt attempts, only to line a base hit to right field. When Kosuke Fukodome bobbled the ball, ...

The Colorado Rockies knew going into the season that their rotation was going to be better than the experts gave them credit for.Part of the reason the club knew that they would be better is because they knew how good Jhoulys Chacin could be. The 23-year old broke out in his rookie season, securing a spot in the rotation and posting a 3.28 ERA in 28 appearances.After Friday's performance, a few more people outside of Denver might be aware of who Chacin is. The Venezuelan led the Rockies to a 5-0 victory over the Cubs, throwing a complete-game shutout. He gave up just six hits, striking out seven while walking just two.  Chacin is just another Rockies prospect who is coming up through the system who seems unfazed by pitching at Coors Field. His breaking pitches move more than they should at elevation, and his confidence in his changeup, throwing ...

The Mariners entered Monday’s series opener with the Toronto Blue Jays on a seven-game losing streak since opening the season 2-0. They won the first two games of that series, and had a great chance to win the third before reigning home run king Jose Bautista ended their aspirations of a sweep with one swing. Yet despite the series win over a solid baseball team, the stretch marked rock bottom in the last decade of Seattle baseball. How could that be, you ask? Let us peek at the attendance figures. On Monday, Felix Hernandez faced off with one of the hardest-hitting lineups in baseball, his first start in Safeco Field as reigning Cy Young winner. He floundered, but in one of the young season’s great ironies, the soft-hitting Mariners put up eight runs in the last three innings, winning the game on reserve Luis Rodriguez’s walk-off single. A total of ...

For years it was acceptable. For years, there when other clubs came to visit Coors Field, it was understandable that fans for the other teams outnumbered Rockies fans. After all, the Rockies were in the middle of an identity crisis for most of those years. Those days are over. These are not your father's Rockies. With the Chicago Cubs heading into town, there will be an inevitable sea of blue filling the green seats at Coors Field. These fans aren't your typical visiting fans, however. These fans are loud, they talk trash,and they have a superiority complex, despite the fact that they are arrogantly cheering for a team who hasn't won a World Series since Theodore Roosevelt lived in the White House. The excuse for Cubs fans is that through WGN, Chicago's superstation, they were the only team that baseball fans from Colorado could watch before the Rockies came into existence. The problem ...

When he got ahead, he dominated. When he fell behind, he got roughed up. There is a reason the above could describe any pitcher, from Roy Halladay to Bartolo Colon, but it was especially true of Michael Pineda in his MLB debut tonight. Pineda gave up three earned runs. The first runner that scored reached on a walk. Josh Hamilton drove the second in by smashing a 2-2 hanging slider to deep right-center field. And the last was on a 3-1 pitch that veteran Michael Young saw coming from Houston. But all told, Mariner fans have to be happy with the debut of Pineda. He struggled less than young Felix Hernandez used to, wasting fewer pitches and simply dominating when he got ahead in the count. Just ask Adrian Beltre, who chased an outside slider in the fourth that he needed a cricket bat to hit. Or Michael Young, who followed Beltre by striking out ...

The Colorado Rockies have gone from being the laughing stock of the National League to a contender. It took several years to build a farm system that was capable of competing against the big spenders from bigger cities, but the Rockies finally arrived, proving themselves with playoff appearances in two of the past four seasons. Long gone are the days when the club was an afterthought in the baseball world. No longer are the Rockies the doormat of the division. However, as the club has risen to dominance, one thing hasn't seemed to change. The Los Angeles Dodgers, regardless of how good they have been, continue to be a thorn in the Rockies side. In September of 2010, with the Dodgers looking forward to an offseason, and the Rockies trying to springboard into the playoffs, Colorado needed one win to really propel their playoff hopes forward. With a five-run lead in the fifth ...

There has never been a must-win Opening Day. Judging by the feeling outside of Coors Field following the Rockies 7-6, 11-inning defeat, it seemed as if the front office had pulled a fast one on its fans. Statements of "this team isn't that good," and "there is no way that they should ever lose to the Diamondbacks" were the prevailing thoughts coming out of the few Rockies fans who had drank fewer than four beers. The fact is, every team hopes to win their opener. It's a celebration of a new season, with renewed hope. The way to put an exclamation point on the party is by notching the first win. Ubaldo Jimenez wasn't good. It's that simple. He was throwing in the mid-90s and even his outs were struck hard. With Jimenez's fastball never reaching his normal speed, thoughts rang back to interviews after his All-Star appearance in 2010. Jimenez was only throwing in ...

The Colorado Rockies need to get off to a quick start. It's a story that's been written a hundred times. However, it's been written so many times because of the fact that this group of baseball players seem to play their best when they are seemingly out of the race. In 2010, it seemed like a breath of fresh air to Rockies fans when the club went 11-12 in April. That being said, 11-12 is not very good for a team looking to make a statement, but compared to previous years it seemed like a hot start. In 2007, the Rockies finished April at 10-16; in April 2008, the year they were trying to prove that their run to the World Series was no fluke, they stumbled to 11-17; in 2009, with Clint Hurdle's job on the line, the club went 8-12. Needless to say, April has not been friendly to the Rockies. There is a ...