The Rockies are so hot, not even Livan Hernandez can beat them. In October, Hernandez is usually the one who refuses to lose.
Before Sunday night, Hernandez was 5-0 in his career in the first two rounds of the National League playoffs, including 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in the NL Championship Series. No more. Not after the Rockies got through with him.
“Those guys are really hot right now,” Hernandez said. “You throw them eggs, they’re going to be fried. Those people are really hot. You can’t touch them. But it’s not over. There’s another game tomorrow.”
Yes, there’s a Game 4 tonight at Coors Field. But at this point, it would be one of the greatest upsets in Major League Baseball history if the Arizona Diamondbacks come back to win the series. Heck, at this point, just a few timely hits would be a moral victory.
Realistically, the D-backs needed to win Sunday if they were going to stand a chance against the red-hot Rox, winners of 20 of their past 21 games. And they had Hernandez, their most battle-tested pitcher, on the mound.
In the end, though, even he couldn’t find a way. The end coming in the sixth inning, when he served up a decisive three-run homer to Yorvit Torrealba, his former teammate in San Francisco and one of his closest friends in the game.
Hernandez had joked with Torrealba earlier in the game that he was going to throw him sliders. But this time, after Torrealba fouled off several pitches, Hernandez came with a fastball on the inner part of the plate. Mistake. Big mistake.
Torrealba drove the ball into the left-field seats and the Rockies were one win away from the World Series.
“It’s the last pitch I want to throw to Torry,” Hernandez said. “I’ve known Torry for a long time. I played a lot of years with him in San Francisco and, you know, he can hit.”
Snake takes. Arizona manager Bob Melvin, on Game 4 starter Micah Owings, he of the .333 batting average and four home runs in 60 at-bats: “He’s an offensive player. We’re in a DH situation, an American League situation, when he’s in the game.” … Melvin said next spring he may experiment with Owings hitting higher than ninth in the order. … Not that the D-backs and Rockies were works in progress going into the season, but each of tonight’s Game 4 starters, Owings and Franklin Morales, was a nonroster invitee to spring training. … The D-backs have had one lead in the series. They scored a run in the bottom of the first in Game 1, only to have the Rockies tie it in the top of the second. … The Diamondbacks hit into three double plays in the first three innings. Not unusual there, except that they hit into 43 after the all-star break, the fewest in baseball. … Tony Clark, on Game 3 winner Josh Fogg: “Foggy’s been there, done that. He’s going to battle you. If a couple of balls had fallen in, maybe it would have changed the whole complexion of the ballgame, but they didn’t fall.”
