Yeah, I know. It sucks to have to write a sentence like that. But the truth is, the injury bug that the Rockies had been so fortutiously dodging all season has caught up with them in a major way -- Aaron Cook is now headed to the DL as per the Rocky Mountain News. This means that Cook, Hirsh, and Lopez are all unavailable, leaving an already suspect rotation in even worse shambles and causing the Rockies to look to players like Ramon Ortiz (acquired from the Twins in exchange for AAA infielder Matt Macri) and Elmer Dessens (salvaged from the D-backs scrap heap and rushed into duty) to patch a suddenly fast-sinking ship.
Add to this cornucopia of crap the fact that ace Jeff Francis was shelled for eight earned runs last night, and the Rockies were shut out by the Pads in the opener of a crucial set, and you can see why I am beginning to accept the fact that we may just be done for this season. We hung in there a hell of a lot longer than we normally do, but with three-fifths of our opening-day rotation unavailable for duty and the cracks chinked by less-than-replacement-level garbage, there is very little reason for hope in the Mile High City. Sure, they could be a sports movie, but they're not. The only way they could hope to stay out of a season-killing tailspin is by using a quick hook and relying on the suddenly good bullpen and usually-potent offense to correct the goose eggs the starter will be laying (and not in a good way). Please, O'Dowd and Co., call up Franklin Morales. Just let him have a shot -- our number-two starter is now Josh Fogg. Good god. Francis has zero margin for error now -- last night's debacle had better be the last of the season as well. I still advocate that I'd feel more comfortable with Buchholz and Morales instead of Dessens and Ortiz -- Dessens and Ortiz, for the love of Christ. The next few weeks are going to be very brutal to watch.
To add further to the misery, Ubaldo Jimenez, he of the hitting-a-wall-in-a-major way, goes tonight against Chris Young, who has a 0.73 ERA at home. Yes, 0.73 in the spacious dimensions of Petco, compared to a more-mortal 3.30 mark on the road. Besides, Jimenez has absolutely imploded in his last few starts and desperately needs to show Rockies Nation something, anything to cling onto. If we have no rotation at all, despite the presence of five breathing guys suiting up for the task, our last pipe-dreams of contention are gone. Even the vaunted offense scored precisely zero runs in said important game last night.
You shall notice that the "Axes I Grind" sidebar has been updated accordingly. Oy vey.
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