Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Ump, Rockies Send Padres on Holliday

In a dramatic 13 inning game, Jamey Carroll's sacrifice fly off of San Diego Padres closer Trevor Hoffman scored MVP candidate Matt Holliday to give the Colorado Rockies a very controversial come-from-behind 9-8 victory. After catching Carroll's flyout to medium right field, Brian Giles made a strong throw to Padre catcher Michael Barrett. Barrett blocked home plate from Holliday, but dropped the ball while trying to tag him as he slid by. Barrett then picked up the ball and tagged Holliday for what should have been the second out of the inning. However, home plate umpire Tim Mcclelland incorrectly ruled Holliday safe. This just adds further fuel to the case for the use of instant replay in baseball. Hopefully, one of these days soon, Major League Baseball commissioner Bed Selig will look into instituting a replay system similiar to that used by the NFL.

Both starting pitchers proved ineffective in the thin air of Denver. Likely 2007 National League Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy gave up six earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. Rockie starter Josh Fogg allowed five runs of his own in four innings of work, four of them coming on a third inning grand-slam by Adrian Gonzalez for his 30th home run of the year. The Rockies carried a 6-5 lead into the eighth inning until former closer Brian Fuentes gave a double to Giles to score Geoff Blum and make it a 6-6 tie. Each team then got four innings of shutout ball from their relievers.

The Padres had taken an 8-6 lead in the top of the 13th inning on a two-run homer by Scott Hairston. Kazuo Matsui led off the bottom of the inning with a double. Troy Tulowitski then followed with a double of his own to score Matsui and make it an 8-7 game. Holliday tripled high off the right field fence scoring Tulowitski to tie the game at 8... this one will be remembered for a VERY long time by Padres fans...

The Rockies travel to Philadelphia for game one of their divisional series tomorrow afternoon. Cole Hamels takes the mound for the Phillies while Jeff Francis takes the mound for the Rockies.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was the biggest bunch of doody ive ever seen on the baseball diamond. I don't know if those umpires were just bad or were paid off. That was the biggest travesty of justice.

frrrrrrunkis

John C said...

lil Jimmy:

Thanks for your comments! While I agree what transpired last night indeed was a "travesty" and would have been prevented with Instant Replay, I'm not sure it's the all-time worst one. That "honor" would go the 2005 AL league series between the Chicago White Sox and Anaheim Angels. As you may recall, the White Sox were incorrectly awarded an extra out in that game when the home plate umpire incorrectly ruled that strike three was not cleanly caught by the Angel catcher. Replays proved otherwise. The White Sox hitter ran to first as the Angels were trotting off the field and as result of being given that fourth out the White Sox won that game and went on to win the World Series later. The umpires never even checked that ball for scuff marks in spite of Angel mananger Mike Scioscia's insistence.

As a reslt, this is how I view their championship:

2005 World Series Champions: Chicago White Sox*

With an emphasis on that asterisk!

Barry Bonds may not be the only one with something going off to Cooperstown this year with an asterisk... if the Rockies somehow do go on to win the World Series this year, they will be the 2nd team worthy of the asterisk IMHO.

Anonymous said...

Your right. That was horrible too in 2005. But can't aimagine your whole season going down the tubes because some umpire blew a call. I wonder if he was getting tips from Tim Donaghy. DOODY I tell you. That umpire better not be an umpire for the playoffs. That would be horrible.


frrrrrrunkis

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