Rockies vs. Phillies: Game 3 lineups
I gotta tell you, it's a beautiful day in Denver. Maybe 70-75 degrees, only a few puffy white clouds in the skies. Just talked to old friend Vinny Castilla, who was a member of that 1995 Rockies team, the only other one to make the playoffs. "This team is better than that one," Castilla said. And he's right.
That team:
C -- Joe Girardi
1B -- Andres Galarraga
2B -- Jason Bates
3B -- Vinny Castilla
SS -- Walt Weiss
OF -- Larry Walker
OF -- Dante Bichette
OF -- Eric Young/Mike Kingery
That's a darn good lineup, and the Rockies led the NL in both runs scored and homers. But the pitching. Ugh. Kevin Ritz led the Rockies with 28 starts, and he had a 4.21 ERA. Bret Saberhagen, Billy Swift, Marvin Freeman, Armando Reynoso, Bryan Rekar, Juan Acevedo, Joe Grahe, Omar Olivares -- they all started some games for those Rockies. Team ERA was 4.97, worst in the NL. Not good enough to win in October.
Here's what these two teams roll out tonight. I'm not making any bold predictions, but I just get the feeling that the Phillies are going to win tonight -- maybe a 7-5, 8-6 type of game. Rockies are acting awfully comfortable, and this Phillies' lineup, lest you forget, has been pretty potent all year.
Philadelphia:
Jimmy Rollins -- 6
Chase Utley -- 4
Pat Burrell -- 7
Ryan Howard -- 3
Aaron Rowand -- 8
Shane Victorino -- 9
Carlos Ruiz -- 2
Abraham Nunez -- 5 (first start of the playoffs)
Jamie Moyer -- 1
Colorado:
Kazuo Matsui -- 4
Troy Tulowitzki -- 6
Matt Holliday -- 7
Todd Helton -- 3
Garrett Atkins -- 5
Brad Hawpe -- 9
Ryan Spilborghs -- 8
Yorvit Torrealba -- 2
Ubaldo Jimenez -- 1
If you recall (and there's a good chance you don't -- I barely do), Ubaldo Jimenez's first start of this season came at Washington, when he threw five innings and allowed two runs. I remember talking to Jamey Carroll (who, upon seeing me today, said, "Why are you here? Aren't the Redskins doing something?", to which I replied, "I'm a Rockies beat writer," which, should they win, will be true next week) and Carroll said that he couldn't understand how Jimenez's numbers at Class AAA Colorado Springs were so poor. "His stuff is amazing," Carroll said then.
The Nationals saw it later in the season here: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K. He was dominant with four pitches.
We'll see how that works tonight against the sage, Moyer.
Oh, Post probables update: Forgot to mention old friend and summer intern Steve Yanda (rhymes with "Honda," not with "panda") is at Wrigley Field today for your Livo-vs.-Soriano story.
Enjoy tonight.
By Barry Svrluga |
October 6, 2007; 8:06 PM ET
Previous: The Bronx is Burning |
Next: Two more sweeps?
Posted by: JennX | October 6, 2007 9:04 PM
Too bad you didn't stick a bunch of gratuitous links in your post, just to annoy Shiner.
Posted by: Cosmo | October 6, 2007 9:05 PM
Every time I see or read about Jamey Carroll, I miss him a little more.
Great work, Barry. I hope you're not quite as wired as Dave on caffeine tonight. And that you're wearing pants.
Posted by: Ava | October 6, 2007 9:24 PM
What an arc for Bret Saberhagen,from 1985 World Series MVP to apologized for pitcher in 1995. At least it's not snowing or raining as predicted.
Posted by: bonderchuck | October 6, 2007 9:37 PM
I agree on all counts, Ava.
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Every time I see or read about Jamey Carroll, I miss him a little more.
Great work, Barry. I hope you're not quite as wired as Dave on caffeine tonight. And that you're wearing pants.
Posted by: natsfan1a | October 6, 2007 9:38 PM
70 degrees. Unlimited visibility. Low 46. Let's hope the game is better than the Accu-Weather forecast. No locusts. Enjoy, Barry!
Posted by: flynnie | October 6, 2007 9:45 PM
Oh, Damn! Shoulda sent Utley!
Posted by: phanatic | October 6, 2007 9:47 PM
Was that an ugly last swing, or what? Rally-killer. Aaron Rowand is not the Nats' answer in center field.
Posted by: we need a cf | October 6, 2007 9:49 PM
I brought Jamie Moyer from Seattle. I am a genius. I've been in the playoffs a lot since I left Baltimore.
Posted by: Pat Gillick | October 6, 2007 9:53 PM
In the spirit of this evening's game, I pulled this hilarious rant out of the NJ archives, courtesy of Sect 506 (my sympathies to your Cubs-loving GF). Go Rox!
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ARGH! I hate the damn Phillies! HATE HATE HATE. I hate Jimmy Rollins and his damned good playing abilities and beefy, but speedy Ryan Howard and broken-handed Chase Utley, and stupid Pat Burrell, and don't even get me started on Shane Victorino and this Hamel freak. I hate them all! ARGH! HATE!
Posted by: Section 506 (After moving) | August 16, 2007 10:18 PM
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Posted by: JennX | October 6, 2007 9:54 PM
Barry did you lean against the light switch?
Posted by: JennX | October 6, 2007 10:01 PM
What happened to the lights?
Posted by: Nats Fan | October 6, 2007 10:02 PM
and then he wrote:
Also I hate Philly. I hate their stupid eatery called "Boursch" that sounds like the noise I'm making after their stupid food. I hate their ads on the Metro about how Philly is more fun, especially the one with the bar skanks offering you a cosmopolitan. I would rather drink toilet water than your cosmopolitan make-up girl! and in the I hate their gaudy, ridiculous Constitution Center and most of all I hate the stupid Liberty Bell -significant of NOTHING in American history- that's harder to see than the United States Capitol due to insane security for fifty feet and twenty minutes while they have a fully used street, not ten feet from the damn bell, which is ALREADY broken in the first place!@%&!
Posted by: natsfan1a | October 6, 2007 10:04 PM
Whoa! It's dark! The lights are out! And last night a plague of locusts! Barry, what have you done?
Posted by: Jabu | October 6, 2007 10:10 PM
My sympathies to your RHCLGF as well, Sect. 506.
Posted by: natsfan1a | October 6, 2007 10:14 PM
The TBS dude said it was a computer glitch. So we can be fairly certain that Barry had nothing to do with it.
Posted by: JennX | October 6, 2007 10:14 PM
I thought maybe the New York/Cleveland squirrel came along for the ride and chewed through a cable.
Posted by: natsfan1a | October 6, 2007 10:29 PM
Snark attack by JennX. Good one!
Posted by: #1 Lurker | October 6, 2007 10:36 PM
Vinny Castilla's a bum.
Posted by: ZRunner | October 6, 2007 10:39 PM
1-1! What a game! And Victorino is such a joyous player! 6 great innings from Philly native Jamie Moyer, who will talk to
Barry!
Posted by: Iz | October 7, 2007 12:07 AM
THIS is all that October baseball should be.
(P.S. Barry, in the online version of your notebook on Vinny: "Castilla, the third baseman on the 2005 Washington Nationals, drove in 90 runs in 139 games for the 2005 Rockies." Might want to find an intern to fix that.)
Posted by: Anonymous | October 7, 2007 12:44 AM
Both NL Division Series are sweeps, and Rockies at Diamondbacks in NLCS. No senior circuit games until next Thursday, and all in Mountain time.
Posted by: flynnie | October 7, 2007 1:10 AM
Good night, all. I'm glad I don't have to write a gamer now.
Posted by: flynnie | October 7, 2007 1:16 AM
Jeez, that's a great gamer by Yanda.
Posted by: John in Mpls | October 7, 2007 2:21 AM
Congrats, Rockies! Loving this work by the lower payroll teams (LPTs).
Posted by: natsfan1a | October 7, 2007 6:09 AM
Indeed, nice gamer by Yanda. Its opening paragraphs surely resonate among anxious Livo fans:
"Yes, the bases were loaded with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Yes, his starting pitcher had just walked three of the last four batters. . . .
"But as Diamondbacks Manager Bob Melvin surveyed the field from his perch in the dugout, he knew he had something his counterpart, Lou Piniella, did not.
"He had Livan Hernandez as his starting pitcher."
And something else they all had was the presence of Greg Gibson calling balls and strikes. Gibson's strikeout-to-walk ratio was seventh-lowest among all 63 MLB umpires who spent at least 500 innings behind the plate in the 2007 regular season.
Livo could've used the services of the late Eric Gregg. Notorious for a strike zone as wide as Gibson's seems to be narrow, Gregg rang up 15 of Livo's opponents in the Marlins' Game 5 win over the Braves in the 1997 NLCS.
And that may be kind to Gibson, whose strike zone is reviled by many for seeming not so much narrow as inconsistent, as exemplified by this post by Cubnut on The Cub Reporter last night:
"Other home plate umpires play chess; Greg Gibson is playing Risk, except his little sister lost the rules and he's having to make them up as he goes along." (An extra-base snark down the third-base line, IMO.)
Posted by: Hendo | October 7, 2007 9:01 AM
As posted to an earlier thread:
Wow, Sheinin goes all nonsecular on the Yankees in today's piece. I like it.
Posted by: natsfan1a | October 7, 2007 10:19 AM
Boz' prediction about Selig's worst fear may prove true.
If the Indians and Saux win today, there is a break between DS & LCS. If both are short, major break between LCS & WS.
Now, here's the real fear. Colorado v. Cleveland. No marquee team. Even worse, a change in the weather and you could even have serious snow in Denver and nasty stuff in Cleveland. Ooops!
Posted by: catcher50 | October 7, 2007 11:05 AM
Did I mention their great city hero, Rocky?! He's not a tough boxer, he's a movie actor!!
Posted by: Section 506 (Before moving) | October 7, 2007 12:56 PM
No, I don't think you did. Tell us more. I read somewhere where the Rockies were being interviewed after winning in Philly and one of them said that they would be running up the steps later...
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Did I mention their great city hero, Rocky?! He's not a tough boxer, he's a movie actor!!
Posted by: natsfan1a | October 7, 2007 1:07 PM
Wonder whether our intrepid Blogfather is in Boston now?
Posted by: natsfan1a | October 7, 2007 1:07 PM
Link to story about last night's first pitch by Coolbaugh's sons. In addition to the playoff share voted by the team, Holliday donated $7,500 from his Clemente Award nomination to the memorial fund for the family. Gotta love those Rockies!
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071006&content_id=2254374&vkey=ps2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
Posted by: natsfan1a | October 7, 2007 1:49 PM
Anaheim. I musta had a synapse lapse.
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Wonder whether our intrepid Blogfather is in Boston now?
Posted by: natsfan1a | October 7, 2007 3:17 PM
That's "Los Angeles of Anaheim" to you, natsfan1a.
Posted by: Arte Moreno | October 7, 2007 4:42 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Thanks for the update, Barry. Nothing much more to say... just wanted to let you know that someone was reading. :)