The first game I saw live this year and the first overall. The weather was perfect, even a little humid for Colorado. It wasn’t a good night for homeruns, and none were hit. However, the Rockies won 7-4 in a crisply played game. One thing that people forget is that one reason the ballpark in Colorado is an offensive park is that it has a fairly big outfield. So, there is some action within the ballpark.
First to address the new rules. It sure sped up the game. The main thing it stopped was batters standing there touching their jersey all over the place. That I don’t miss at all. Neither I nor my friend thought the new rules took anything from the action. After 4 and a half innings the score was 4-2 Rockies, and the game was only about an hour old.
The game itself took 2 hours and 16 minutes. It wouldn’t have taken that much, but when German Marquez came out to pitch the sixth he had an injury, and no one was warming up in the bullpen. So, the new pitcher Brent Suter warmed up on the field. That was the only boring part of the game.
I read a couple of write up from St. Louis fans about the game and there was complaints about their fielding because they made two errors. However, they also made some really good plays in the field. Nolan Arenado made it difficult play look easy early in the game and the Cardinals turned a couple of excellent double plays, that even the home crowd appreciated.
The Rockies scored first in the bottom of the third. They led 1-0 with Kris Bryant at the plate 1 out, runners on first and third. Bryant struck out, but the runner at first broke for second and ended up in a rundown. The runner on third (Ezequiel Tovar) moved tentatively from third watching the play. The second basement looked him back and started chasing the runner. However, Tovar didn’t retreat back to third. He just slowed down and sprinted when the second basemen looked away. He scored long before the runner was caught in the rundown. I saw in Baseball Reference Tovar wasn’t credited with a stolen base. I don’t know why because he did a good job of baserunning.
Meanwhile, German Marquez had retired the first 9 Cardinal batters. However, second time through the lineup he gave up three hits and two runs to start the fourth inning. Marquez then retired the last six batters before his injury and had to be replaced.
Brent Suter and Justin Lawrence pitched two innings each and each gave up a run, fairly solid performances.
Each of the Rockies starters had at least one hit. One of the hitting heroes of the day was Elehuris Montero who I mentioned before on this site. He is 24 and has a really good swing. He is playing third base and was pulled for defense in the late going, but his bat is going to help the Rockies.
Another, here was Alan Trejo with three hits. He is an aggressive hitter. In fact, this season he has 14 plate appearances and no walks, so his batting average and on base percentage is the same. That is too small of a sample but in his career 189 plate appearances he has 5 walks. That isn’t good. However, he is a utility infielder who can play short, second and third, so he adds value on defense.
