PHOENIX – The Rockies’ Refuse to Lose Tour has gone on for more than three weeks now.
So, will it continue tonight in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series? Chances are, we’ll know soon enough. As in, if not in the first inning, probably the second.
That’s the drill with Brandon Webb, your basic reigning Cy Young Award winner. The word on Webb was, is and always will be this: If you’re going to hit that nasty sinker of his, you’d better get started early.
“You always want to get him early in the game,” Rockies right fielder Brad Hawpe said. “Because that’s when he’s still feeling for his command, still trying to feel how much sink he’s going to have.”
The numbers prove the point. The Rockies faced Webb six times this season. In those six games, they scored six runs in the first inning. And it wasn’t like Webb fared that well later, either. Ironic as it seems, since he’s the only pitcher to beat them in 18 games, but the Rockies hit Webb like nobody else hits him.
He finished 1-3 against Colorado with a 5.77 ERA. Nothing unusual there except that he didn’t lose more than two games to any other opponent. He also allowed 17 walks against the Rockies, seven more than his next-highest total.
Major League Baseball’s unbalanced schedule gives National League West clubs more looks at Webb than other teams get at him. Against the rest of the West, Webb compiled a 3.18 ERA against San Diego, 3.15 vs. San Francisco, and 0.92 against the Dodgers.
Webb said he’ll probably know early if he’s got his best stuff tonight.
“You can usually tell out of the pen,” he said. “Actually, it probably takes about the first batter. … The first two batters, you can definitely tell what kind of stuff you have.”
So what constitutes his best stuff?
Let’s put it this way: Webb was close on the final weekend of the season, when he induced 16 groundballs from the Rockies at Coors Field in a 4-2 Diamondbacks victory.
“My best stuff is definitely keeping the ball down,” Webb said. “You can probably go back at the end of the game and see how many groundballs I have and see what kind of stuff I had.”
In that case, he hasn’t always had his best stuff against the Rockies. Hawpe, who had struggled against Webb before this season, hit him at a .342 clip with four home runs and 12 RBIs in 38 at-bats. Kazuo Matsui, meanwhile, hit .423 (11-for-26) off him, and Todd Helton hit .300 with two homers and eight RBIs.
