My daughter’s fiancé’s Grandparents are a part of a season ticket group and I got tickets to two games. It was early and hadn’t really studied the standings and thought the Reds would be an interesting team to see. Then I looked for Cincinnati in the standings yesterday before the game. They were 3-17. Since I saw the Rockies lose the first two games I went to I then thought this was a good time to see a Rockies victory.
These seats were a little to the left of home plate. I had a great view of the plate and the pitch locations, especially when left-handed batters were up at the plate. Not only were the seats great, but the parking pass I got with the purchase of the tickets is right next to the stadium. Season ticket holders also have their own entrance. Life was good last night.
It was cool at the game, but never got cold. I had no problem with the temperature. It helped that the pitchers pitched well, (except for one) and the game flew by. The time of the game was 2 hours and 31 minutes, which in today’s game might be a record.
Looking at the Reds lineup I saw in part why they have such a bad record. Their highest batting average after the game is Kyle Farmer who has a batting average of .253. They have only two players with an OPS of over .700.
The player who surprised me the most is Joey Votto. I know he is 38 but he had a good season last year. Also, in my opinion Joey Votto is hall of famer. This has been a 20-game slump for Votto. In the first inning he hit the ball hard, a line drive to center, that the center fielder caught, but struck out his other three at bats. Not good.
Of course, this is Coors Field and on the first pitch of the game Tyler Naquin hit a line drive homerun to left field.
Meanwhile the Rockies put one man on base each of the three innings, but each of them was wiped out. Connor Joe was caught stealing in the first, there was an inning ending double play in the second and the catcher Dom Nunez was picked off as he left first base too far after a pitch and the catcher threw behind him.
This meant the Reds pitcher Connor Overton only had to get 6 batters out the first three innings. He didn’t look that sharp. He had about the same number of balls as strikes, which is not a good sign for a pitcher. However, he was getting through every innings. Meanwhile the Rockies pitcher Chad Kuhl looked sharp. Ironically he didn’t throw a ball in the first inning.
In the fourth the Rockies finally stranded a man, but Overton was starting to look sharp. Kuhl who would only give up 5 hits with two being homers gave up the other 3 in the fifth. The bases were loaded with no outs. However, the next batter Aramis Garcia grounded to third for a double play scoring a run.
Some fans thought the third baseman Ryan McMahon should have thrown home to prevent the run. On the instant replay it did show McMahon looking at home before he threw to second. So, there are two reasons I agree with McMahon, I trust his judgement and getting two outs helps prevent a big inning. Which I think is especially important at Coors.
The score remained 2-0 going into the bottom of the sixth. Overton gave up a leadoff single and a fly out. Now the top of the order was coming up and Overton had been through the order two times. He had thrown only 75 pitches. However, today managers hate to have pitchers pitch the third time through the lineup, so Art Warren came in to face Connor Joe. Remember when I said every pitcher, but one had a good outing. Art Warren was the one who didn’t.
Connor Joe walked and Charlie Blackmon doubled in two runners. Well actually Joe scored on a bad throw from the right fielder for the only error of the game, but you know what I mean. The game was now tied, and Walker had to face at least one more batter. Randel Grichuk walked. However, I think the Reds had just gotten someone up in the bullpen, so Walker had to face two more batters. C.J. Cron who is having a good year jumped on the first pitch and hit a high popup, two outs. However, Ryan McMahon tripled in the two runners to give the Rockies a 4-2 lead.
It surprised me two innings later when had Kuhl came out to lead off the eighth. Kuhl hadn’t thrown many pitches and I had visions of a complete game. It didn’t happen. With one out Aramis Garcia homered off Kuhl to make the score 4-3. Kuhl was taken out having throw 83 pitches. However, the relievers didn’t let him down striking out 4 of the 5 batters they faced. The other out was a ground out to second. Daniel Bard the Rockies relief ace struck out Joey Votto to end the game on a 99 mile per hour fastball.
A good time was had by all except the Reds and their fans.
