<$BlogRSDURL$>

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Must. Win. 

Can you really have a must-win baseball game in April? At Coors Field?

As strange as it sounds, I think last night's game turned into one of those must-win games. The more the D-Backs struggled against Shawn Chacon for the second game in a row, the more I thought how bad a loss would be. Fourth loss in a row, loss of faith in the offense, sinking under .500... Maybe it wasn't a must-win, but it was definitely a big win.

The D-Backs couldn't get anything going -- even Glaus' homerun in the top of the sixth seemed more like a drop than the forerunner of something slightly more torrential in the seventh. Of course, that's because Rockie manager Clint Hurdle had his bullpen try to hold on, and it appears that the Rockies' bullpen is Not A Good Bullpen. The seventh inning -- 6 hits, oh, my goodness, 6 hits!

And the D-Back bullpen, after such a collapse in the seventh inning in the last two games, once again rescued an acceptable performance from Brandon Webb. Webb may not be pitching as well thus far this year as he did last year, but clearly he's had better luck with his offense, defense, and bullpen support.

Finally, maybe this is just me, but isn't it really weird that the state's major newspaper would have to use a "special" reporter to report on the game? Hope nothing's seriously wrong with one of the cast of dozens who've served as D-Backs beat reporters.

Comments: Post a Comment