Josh Chetwynd was right: losing a close game is more demoralising than losing by twelve runs. The Rockies head back home down 2-0 in the series knowing full well that they had opportunities to earn a split at Fenway. That one game difference counts for a lot. 1-1 and the Rockies have a great chance of retaining the World Series for the National League. At 0-2 down, they’ve given themselves a mountain to climb.
MLB.com reveals just how big a task they are facing. They report that of the last fifty teams to be in this position, only eleven have been able to fight back and win the title. Eleven’s more hopeful than none and it shows that it can be done, but the Red Sox are a formidable opponent and it’s hard to see them capitulating after building up such a commanding lead.
A day after their pitching was hit all over the place, the Rockies’ hurlers did a great job in holding the Boston batting line-up to just two runs in game two. The bullpen pitched 3.1 scoreless innings after Ubaldo Jimenez gave them the start that the probably expected. He pitched well, but his recent form suggested that he would give up free bases and wouldn’t make it past six innings. As it was, he lasted just 4.2 innings while handing out five walks and a hit-by-pitch. Jimenez has struggled with his command since being called up to the Majors and the Red Sox were not going to help him out by swinging at too many pitches outside the strikezone.
The Rockies’ lineup was more generous though. When your pitchers give up thirteen runs, as they did in game one, the hitters can be absolved of some of the blame for the resulting loss. When you only need three runs to win a game and you come up short, the hitters will be placed under the microscope. Two situations in particular summed up the Rockies’ night and both of them involved Matt Holliday occupying first base. The most obvious of the two occurred in the eighth, when Holliday made the fateful error of being picked-off at first with Todd Helton standing in the batter’s box. It’s a silly error to commit at any point, but when it ends the inning it seems to hurt that little bit more. However, the fact that Holliday was in a position to make that error was testament to the great night he had at the plate. Holliday went 4 for 4, including a lead-off single in the top of the fourth and it was the hitters who followed him in that inning who probably did the most damage to the Rockies’ chances.
Todd Helton stepped up and hit the first pitch he saw to Jacoby Ellsbury for out number one. Garrett Atkins followed Helton to the plate and hacked the first pitch to Manny Ramirez for the second out. Then Brad Hawpe, with “third time lucky†flicking through his head, swung at Schilling’s first offering and popped out to Julio Lugo.
It gave Schilling a nine-pitch inning, especially welcome after a six-pitch battle with Holliday to start the frame. But more importantly it put the pressure back on the Rockies’ young starter.
After coasting through the first two innings, during which he threw just nineteen pitches combined, Jimenez laboured through the bottom of the third. He threw twenty-five pitches in this frame and would have been breathing a sigh of relief when he returned to the dugout after David Ortiz just missed hitting a three-run homer down near Pesky’s pole. Had the Rockies been able to capitalize on Holliday’s lead-off single in the top of the fourth, the momentum of the game would have swung their way. The Helton-Atkins-Hawpe three-pitch giveaway not only kept their lead down to one, it also sent Jimenez back to the mound without having much of a chance to regain his composure. He struggled again in the bottom of the fourth, giving up the tying run, and the Red Sox never looked back. Yes this is talking with hindsight, but if the Rockies’ 4, 5 and 6 hitters had shown a bit more patience at the plate in the fourth, the rest of the game might have been completely different.
Let’s give credit to Boston though. Curt Schilling might not have his fastball of old, but he knows how to pitch in big games. Thanks to Josh Beckett’s masterful performance in game one, Schilling was able to give his all for 5.1 innings knowing that he had Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon rested and ready in the bullpen. Had Wednesday’s contest been a closer affair, one or both of them may have been used that night. Due to the size of their advantage, Red Sox manager Terry Francona was able to get by with Timlin and Gagne, holding back his top two arms for a more pressurised situation. With just a one run lead to defend, Okajima and Papelbon pitched brilliantly to shut down the Colorado offense over 3.2 innings. It was a fitting way to end the opening stand at Fenway: Boston’s 2-0 series lead is fully deserved and the Rockies will have to hope that a change of scenery will lead to a dramatic change in fortune.
Otherwise, a sweep is on the cards.
