Rockies Off to Unrocky Start
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Rockies Off to Unrocky Start
Jeff Francis outpitched Brandon Webb in the Colorado Rockies' 5-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Francis became the first postseason starter to record two wins. The D-Backs got the only extra base hits of the game and outhit the Rockies 9-8 but still came out on the short end of the score. Brad Hawpe of LSU drove in two of the runs for the Rockies giving him 13 RBI's against Webb in 2007. Webb only struck out four Rockies but the relievers for Diamondbacks struck out six for a total of 10 strikeouts for the Rockies.
The Diamondbacks need to win tonight to avoid being two games down but face Uvaldo Jiminez who was picked to start over Josh Fogg with 10 wins and Aaron Cook with 8 wins. It is a statement of how much confidence Clint Hurdle has in Jiminez to start him over two veterans. Doug Davis who has a proclivity for issuing walks gets the start for the Diamondbacks.
Worst of all Webb has an ERA of over 5.00 against the Rockies this year so unless he can pitch well against Rockies in next start the Diamondbacks could be going home soon...but it is still too early to make any predictions. It really depends on how many walks Davis issues tonight and if the Rockies can take advantage of those walks.
Justin Upton was called for interference when he slid into Kazuo Matsui clearly going out of his way to take out Matsui after being forced at second. Anyone viewing the replay can tell the umpires were right in making the double play call. Runners have a right to take out a fielder as long as they are in their normal path to second base but Upton moved to the third base side of second base to take Matsui out.
Mitchell Investigation
Former Senator George Mitchell has been investigating drug use in major league baseball for the last 19 months and still there has not been a report issued. It is almost like major league baseball is not serious about this investigation but are prolonging it as long as possible hoping they can get some information that actually will make the investigation worthwhile.
Bud Selig is once again pretending to do something about the steroids use in baseball while really not doing anything to proceed with the investigation. With the player's union chief Don Fehr apparently telling the players not to talk to Mitchell this is a worthless investigation.
The only ones who have talked to the investigators are players who have more or less admitted using drugs to enhance their performance and have been forced to talk or be placed under suspension. It will be interesting to see how much longer this investigation drags on and how long Congress will sit on the sidelines doing nothing while baseball conducts this sham of an investigation. I hope Mitchell proves me wrong and releases his report very soon but I think it will take several more months before the report is released to the commissioner.
Why hasn't Barry Bonds been interviewed by Mitchell? Bonds has so many skeletons hanging in his closet he has no room for clothes but yet Mitchell and Congress have avoided questioning Bonds apparently because of ongoing possible prosecution by the grand jury in the Balco perjury case.
