Somehow, a long, strange, chaotic, exciting, error-filled, walk-marred night melded together nicely for the Rockies.
In the end, which didn’t come until closer Chin-Hui Tsao retired Jeff Kent on a groundout with the bases loaded in the ninth, the Rockies defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-6 at Coors Field Saturday.
Thoroughly explaining the victory, however, could not be achieved without wandering off into tangents.
“Sometimes you watch with both eyes open, sometimes you watch with one eye open,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. “And sometimes you ask somebody, ‘What happened?”‘
The Rockies watched their former minor-league prospect Vernand Morency get picked in the third round of the NFL draft. Morency is a Rockies’ prospect no more.
Colorado then got an overdue breakout game from and Wilson, who combined for six RBIs in the first two innings as the Rockies built a 7-0 lead.
“About time, huh?” said Helton, who had RBI singles in the first and second .
“It was nice for both of us to get something going in the same game,” said Wilson, who clubbed a two-run double and two-run homer.
That 7-0 lead came perilously close to disappearing, however, and it would have had the Dodgers not left the bases loaded in the fifth, eighth and ninth innings.
“You don’t want Jeff Kent up with the bases loaded,” said Hurdle, who couldn’t help but laugh at the difficult predicament his young team put itself in before winning.
While the Tsao vs. Kent matchup was the game’s edge-of-the-seat moment, it was the Dodgers’ first bases-loaded opportunity that had the crowd talking.
In a peculiar strategic move, Dodgers manager Jim Tracy let starting pitcher Odalis Perez bat with two outs, the bases loaded and his team down 7-4 in the fifth. Everybody else had expected Tracy to send up a pinch-hitter like the dangerous Olmedo Saenz. Instead, Tracy figured the game was too early and let Perez bat for himself.
Perez drilled a liner to right field – where Michael Restovich made a nice, sliding, game-saving catch for the out. The kicker to the Tracy maneuver: The game played out as he predicted. In the eighth, his team had moved to within 8-6. Again the bases were loaded with two outs. And because he didn’t burn Saenz in the fifth, he had his best pinch-hitter ready in the eighth.
This time Tracy used him while Hurdle countered with rookie sidearmer Justin Speier. Saenz didn’t get near as much wood as Perez got in the fifth, lifting a lazy fly to center.
“Could anybody tell me a pinch-hitter would do any better than hit a vicious line drive to the right fielder?” Tracy said. “And trash your bullpen for the next four days with no day off and your starter (Brad Penny) on an 80-pitch limit (today) with the uncertainty of weather? And as you go through the game would you take Olmedo Saenz with the bases loaded in the eighth inning and Jeff Kent with the bases loaded in the ninth inning? Would you take that?”
Most people would take it in a second. Explaining why it didn’t work, though, would take considerably longer.
Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
