The first series of the season is in the books, and there was a theme for the weekend: circus baseball.
The errors piled up and led to some very … interesting baseball. Leading the way for the weekend was Marco Scutaro, who had half of the Rockies four errors for the weekend. The baseball gods smiled upon the Rockies in Houston on Friday only to return the favor in kind to the Astros the next day. Scutaro overthrew first on Saturday and then the shot to second was overthrown resulting in a runner advancing to third on two errors. That type of play is exactly how you make SportsCenter for all the wrong reasons. The only thing that was missing was someone getting a pie in the face or slipping on a banana peel in center field.
The Astros gave up the win on Friday on four errors and were redeemed by Jamie Moyer’s first game of the season. Moyer began the game with much fanfare and approval only to have it dashed early as his arm and team defense victimized him after five innings by giving up almost one run per hit. Departing after a fistful of hits and two home runs, the Moyer experiment will have to wait another start to see where it can go. Houston’s Jordan Schafer single-handedly shattered confidence in Moyer’s return by striking the iron early with a leadoff home run.
On the brightside, Troy Tulowitzki went about as deep as you can on opening night. Any other ballpark and that ball is deep into the parking lots or starting a legit kayak race in McCovey Cove. The lineup impressed me more than I expected. Every player seemed to look his best at one time or another over the first three days. The bench got work, as well, to rest players while also spelling bad play. Like I said, Scutaro’s defense lacked and Chris Nelson was removed for Wilin Rosario who was the bright spot with Juan Nicasio on Sunday.
I’m headed downtown to opening day at Coors Field on Monday, so I hope that Jhoulys Chacin doesn’t blow it this year like Ubaldo Jimenez did last year. On a side note, Jimenez dropped his appeal, which I thought was funny. Let him get his first start in, then he drops it. Glad he at least realized that he needed to just take the slap on the wrist and move on, and did he as he took a no-hitter deep while also carrying a perfect game early on. The no-hitter connections to Colorado piled up as the weekend saw Jeremy Guthrie, Jason Hammel and Jimenez carry no-no’s into or past the sixth.
It’s time for baseball in Colorado, and I can’t wait for the first day at the ballpark tomorrow with my girlfriend, who is going to be sporting the Brian Wilson jersey. If the Rox do San Fran like the Giants got done by D-backs, the bearded closer can sit in the corner of the bullpen and wait for Wednesday. I’d like to see the Rockies get Barry Zito early and steal a win when not facing Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain or Madison Bumgarner.
The first series didn’t go Colorado’s way; let’s at least get it going at home against a division team.