The Rockies won again. I’m now 2 for 2 for the year. My friend and I keep saying they should hire us. We had our wives with us for this game and they rolled their eyes when we said this. The Rockies won 7-1. They looked great out there. Milwaukee had a good first month, but the Rockies looked a lot better. That is what you get with limited observations. The weather was perfect, which is great as it rained where we lived. That worked out well as we could use the rain. We can always use the rain.
The pace wasn’t as crisp as the April game we went to. Milwaukee did more mound visits. This game took 2 hours and 41 minutes, close to a half hour longer than the first game we attended. It seemed a little slower even without the mound differences.
For the second game in a row, we had a pitcher looked at after taking their warmups to start this inning. It was the fifth when the Rockies stopped play after a couple of pitches and had starter Kyle Freeland pitch a couple of pitches. He must have looked alright as he continued pitching, striking out the side. Freeland didn’t come out in the sixth even though he had only 62 pitches. The Rockies relievers, except one, took care of the rest of the game.
The one was Dinelson Lamet who came into the ninth with a 7-0 lead. He came into the game with an ERA over 12. He didn’t help himself with this performance. Lamet was wild. Not major league wild, but Charlie Sheen wild. One of our wives said even I can tell that is a ball. No one complained to the ump because they didn’t want to look stupid. Brewer fans who had been quiet for a long time, woke up.
The inning started walk, walk, groundout, walk. Rowdy Tellez ruined the streak of walks with the groundout. He did have a called strike before he grounded out and it looked like Lamet might be getting in synch. However, the next batter didn’t have a chance to hit the ball for an easy walk.
Bud Black bought Jake Bird into get the last two outs. Tyrone Taylor hit the ball hard and I thought it had a chance. However, it wasn’t as hard as I thought and went to straight center. For the out. A run scored but Bird got the next batter out to end the game and the minor threat.
I looked up Lamet’s season. He has been up all year. He pitched in 12 games and has given up at least one run in eight of them. He has been pitching worse lately. He pitched well, not great, for the Rockies last year after they got him from the Padres. However, his last 3 outings have been terrible, and he had an ERA of 6 before that. I don’t know if the Rockies have any plans for him.
In the field the Rockies looked great on defense. They made all the plays and made a few nice plays. The Brewers center fielder Joey Wiemer made a nice play on a line drive ball.
One thing I noticed and had confirmed by Baseball Reference is the Rockies lineup isn’t young. Here are the first six batters and their age:
Charlie Blackmon 36
Jurickson Profar 30
Kris Bryant 31
C.J. Crown 33
Elias Diaz 32
Randel Grichuk 31
Grichuk played centerfield and looked good out there. He is replacing Yonathan Daza who just got sent down for reassignment before the Mets game tonight. Grichuk is batting .500 right now, but that is in 16 plate appearances. Brenton Doyle the other center fielder has an OPS of .487. So, Grichuk should be playing center for now.
McMahon moved to third base as Elehuris Montorro wasn’t hitting and was sent down to the minors at the end of April. MaMahon was never a real good hitter but didn’t look good last night with three strikeouts and a short fly to right. His swing usually looks better. The good news is he is a better fielder at third than second. Alan Trejo played second and he is a better fielder at second than McMahon, so the defense has improved in two positions.
Ezequiel Tover age 21 played short and looked good. At least the Rockies have one young prospect in the lineup.
