Four in a Row, Going for Five
As most people know by now, this weekend the rockies won their fourth road series in a row for the first time in franchise history. Who would have thought? This is the team that has experienced enough road disasters this season for two teams. The rockies have always had difficulty winning on the road, so this season was not expected to be any different, but it was even worse than most people would have anticipated. So, to match, and then surpass an achievement from previous seasons is rather shocking. What is the explanation? Solid pitching, from both starters and relievers, and timely hitting. It seems simple, yet no team can win regularly without one or the other and a team will lose regularly without either. The latter has been the case for the rockies for the majority of this season on the road.
It's not very often that a team can turn things around this dramatically in the midst of a season. The re-appearance of Helton has been huge. What was the major weakness at the beginning of the season, the bullpen, is now the team strength. In April alone, the bullpen had seven losses and seven blown saves. Since July 1, the pen has blown eight saves and lost five games. That is an improvement certainly worth noting. Clutch hitting by nearly everyone at one time or another has been a key ingredient to the recent road success. Holliday came within about 10 feet of tying the game yesterday in the 8th. The rockies' inability to score him from third with no outs was one of the few failures during this little streak of good baseball.
Saturday, the rockies struck out 13 San Diego batters, a season high for the rockies staff. As a bonus, they only walked one.
Although there are some in the rockies' blogosphere that continue to dislike Danny Ardoin, I can't help but wonder if his arrival has something to do with the improved performance of the pitching staff. At the time of his call-up June 7 to the rockies, the team ERA was 5.79. Since then the team ERA has been 4.91.
Congratulations to Hawaii, winner of the 2005 Little League World Series. The USA youngsters rallied from three runs down to tie it in the bottom of the 6th and then hit a walk-off HR in the bottom of the 7th to beat the defending champions from Curacao.
It's not very often that a team can turn things around this dramatically in the midst of a season. The re-appearance of Helton has been huge. What was the major weakness at the beginning of the season, the bullpen, is now the team strength. In April alone, the bullpen had seven losses and seven blown saves. Since July 1, the pen has blown eight saves and lost five games. That is an improvement certainly worth noting. Clutch hitting by nearly everyone at one time or another has been a key ingredient to the recent road success. Holliday came within about 10 feet of tying the game yesterday in the 8th. The rockies' inability to score him from third with no outs was one of the few failures during this little streak of good baseball.
Saturday, the rockies struck out 13 San Diego batters, a season high for the rockies staff. As a bonus, they only walked one.
Although there are some in the rockies' blogosphere that continue to dislike Danny Ardoin, I can't help but wonder if his arrival has something to do with the improved performance of the pitching staff. At the time of his call-up June 7 to the rockies, the team ERA was 5.79. Since then the team ERA has been 4.91.
Congratulations to Hawaii, winner of the 2005 Little League World Series. The USA youngsters rallied from three runs down to tie it in the bottom of the 6th and then hit a walk-off HR in the bottom of the 7th to beat the defending champions from Curacao.
posted by Todd Nikkel | 10:16 AM
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