6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

I'll start by sending you Christina Kahrl's prediction of a Rockies' victory today mainly because they have more healthy horses and better replacements for those they've lost. To that end, the Rocks are already up 2-0 thanks to Todd Helton blasting a long sac fly to dead center; would Mike Cameron have gotten the ball in to prevent both runners from advancing to scoring position? Garret Atkins drives in another with an RBI single, but that's all they get. Peavy tends to be worse in the first inning than in the second through fifth, so we'll see where that takes the Rockies.

Bottom 2nd: Yorvit Torrealba hits a leadoff homer off Peavy in the third. 3-0 Rockies. Peavy then shuts down the next three, two on strikeouts (and Troy Tulowitzki looking), but the damage is done.

Top 3rd: The Padres load the bases, and Kevin Kouzmanoff hits one to medium center. Jake Peavy doesn't tag from third, and it briefly looks like Fogg will get out of the jam, but then Adrian Gonzalez hits a no-doubter grand slam, his first career slam, to take the lead 4-3. Fogg gives up a single to Khalil Greene. Josh Bard doubles down the left field line, and Fogg is starting to look awfully shaky. Fogg intentionally walks Geoff Blum to get to Brady Clark, but Clark hits into a scoring fielder's choice, with Jake Peavy at bat; Peavy makes his expected out, popping up to second. 5-3 Padres.

Bottom 3rd: Todd Helton blasts a solo shot to make it 5-4. Peavy then walks Garret Atkins but retires Brad Hawpe and Ryan Spilborghs to end the frame. He's clearly missing his spots; he surrendered 11 homers all year prior to the two in this game.

Top 5th: After shutting down top of the Padres order out in the fourth, Fogg surrenders a leadoff double to Gonzalez on another first pitch; Fogg's first pitch to Gonzalez in the fifth also turned into extra bases, the grand slam. That's all Clint Hurdle needs to pull him for Taylor Buchholz. Buchholz shuts down the Pads 1-2-3. 5-4 Padres.

Bottom 5th: Tulowitzki hits a floater just out of reach of centerfielder Brady Clark, and the ball skips off his glove and gets to the wall. Matt Holliday singles home the tying run; 5-5.

The Rocks get Holliday to second on Todd Helton's groundout, but they strand him and the intentionally walked Brad Hawpe when Ryan Spilborghs strikes out. Score tied, 5-5.

Top 6th: Buchholz gives up a leadoff single to Brady Clark, but lucks out when Peavy pops up a bunt attempt caught by Yorvit Torrealba. That chases Buchholz, and Hurdle brings in lefty Jeremy Affeldt to face lefty Brian Giles. Affeldt gets Giles to pop out, but not before uncorking a wild pitch that sends Clark to second. His job done, after a fashion, Hurdle installs 27-year-old Ryan Speier, 4.08 ERA in 19 appearances and 17.2 IP.

Speier strikes out Scott Hairston to end the threat. Still tied, 5-5.

Bottom 6th: On Peavy's 98th pitch of the night, pinch-hitter Seth Smith provides Brady Clark a lesson on the difficulty of playing center at Coors, with Smith narrowly missing a home run. Smith ends up on third, his first major league extra-base hit. Kaz Matsui gets it deep far enough into center to score the go-ahead run, with some help by an offline throw by Clark. Tulo then triples with two out, and Clark once again misplays the carom. Mike Cameron's absence is being powerfully felt by the Padres.

Peavy finally gets Matt Holliday on a swinging strikeout to end the frame, but he's probably done for the night on pitch 109. 6-5 Rockies.

Bottom 7th: After LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless top half, Bud Black decides to stretch out Peavy despite his high pitch count. It's an odd decision considering Helton has already homered off Peavy; it works anyway, as Helton lines out to first. Peavy isn't so lucky about Garret Atkins, though, as he hits yet another ball off the top of the left field wall; the replay shows the ball to be a home run, but the umpire crew disagrees and it's only a double.

Peavy intentionally walks Brad Hawpe and gets the hook to end his night. Heath Bell comes in to pitch to Ryan Spilborghs in a double switch with Michael Barrett; Jamie Carroll pinch-runs for Atkins, an odd decision considering how many outs the Rockies have to get.

Top 8th: With two out and Brian Fuentes facing Brian Giles with a man on second, Matt Holliday misplays Giles' liner, and the scorer rules it a double as it bounces to the wall. The announcers are making the point that the umpires' miscall of Atkins' home run may have cost the Rockies the game, but if Fuentes hadn't uncorked a wild pitch to strike out Michael Barrett (or if Torrealba had caught the ball), Geoff Blum wouldn't be at second. Game tied, 6-6.

Bottom 8th: Heath Bell walks leadoff man Cory Sullivan, and a Kaz Matsui groundout gets Sullivan to second. The Rocks get no further, as Bell retires the next two batters in order, and Sullivan is stranded at second. Game still tied, 6-6.

Bottom 9th: After Manny Corpas retires the side on six pitches in the top of the frame, Bud Black decides to stay with Trevor Hoffman's wingman Bell. Bell strikes Helton and gets Carroll to pop out, but walks Hawpe. Corpas exits the game for .091-hitting Joe Koshansky; Koshansky strikes out on three pitches, and the game's going to extras, still tied, 6-6.

Top 10th: Hurdle calls on his eighth pitcher of the game, Matt Herges. Herges gives up a walk to pinch hitter Terrmel Sledge, and Black calls in injured Mike Cameron (who can't bat) to pinch-run for Sledge. Herges then gives up a single to Michael Barrett, but Giles grounds out to end the inning. The radio broadcast is playing "I Wanna Be Sedated" on the intro to the return to the bottom of the tenth.

Bottom 11th: Herges gets out of the top of the 11th by getting Greene to bounce into a double play. The move to pull Atkins for a pinch runner may have backfired, though, as Doug Brocail intentionally-unintentionally walks Helton, with the limp threat of Jamey Carroll coming to the plate with two out. Amazingly, Carroll gets a single, and that does it for Brocail. San Diego still has a deeper bullpen than the Rockies, and Black calls on Joe Thatcher to snuff out the nascent Colorado rally. He does, getting Brad Hawpe to strike out on five pitches. The game goes to the 12th, with Hurdle having used virtually all of the good parts of his bullpen.

Top 12th: Sure enough, Herges walks the leadoff batter, Morgan Ensberg. (Ensberg was called in on a double switch in the bottom of the 11th.) Black starts to ransack his roster by calling in the .111-hitting Brian Myrow to pinch hit for Cameron, but Myrow strikes out despite Herges going 2-1 on him.

Herges goes 3-0 to Michael Barrett with the leadoff batter in the on-deck circle and two out, but recovers to get a groundout to Tulowitzki. Still 6-6, with a lot of hyperventilating Rockies fans in the stands.

Bottom 12th: Thatcher retires the side in order with a pair of strikeouts. If this comes down to a batter of the bullpens, the Rocks are underarmed compared to the Padres, and the Rocks will almost certainly call in their ninth pitcher, as Herges was pretty gassed on the last out in the top of the frame. I'm heading home now, but I expect San Diego will eventually wear down whatever relievers Hurdle sends out, especially since they haven't brought Trevor Hoffman into the game yet.

Top 13th: As I expected: Scott Hairston connected against Jorge Julio, who failed to make even a single out. Amazingly, this brought out garbage-time reliever Ramon Ortiz with a man on; and he actually retired Gonzalez, Greene, and Ensberg in order.

That turned out to be important.

Bottom 13:

Falstaff: Yea, and so used it that were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent — But, I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? and resolution thus fobbed as it is with the rusty curb of old father antic the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.

Henry V: No; thou shalt.

— William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Act I, Scene 2

Ready they the gallows now in San Diego? Here is Trevor Hoffman's line from today's game: 0.1 IP, 3 hits, 3 runs, 3 earned runs, 1 walk. He gave up a pair of consecutive doubles to Matsui and Tulo, and then a triple to Matt Holliday to tie it up. Intentionally walking Helton put men on the corners, and then Carroll hit a sac fly to medium right — which shouldn't have allowed the runner at third to tag.

Holliday went anyway.

The throw came to the plate, and there, Michael Barrett made one crucial mistake: he dropped the ball. That, I am convinced, is the thing that caused home plate umpire Tim McClelland to call Holliday safe, thus advancing the Rockies to the postseason for the first time in 13 years, on a 13th inning sac fly, in the season's longest game at Coors Field. According to the XM announcer after the game, this was the first and only single-game playoff to go to extras.

Ballgame.

Congratulations, Rockies!

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Labels: padres, postseason, rockies