Rockies Take Another, Now Two Back From Dodgers

Most teams take a step back when injuries crop up, but the Rockies are showing no ill-effects with a depleted roster:

The greatest thing is that we’re winning with half our team out right now ... Today 5 regulars were out of the lineup, as well as our normal starting pitcher and closer. A slew of mediocre pitchers and multiple bench players, and we still pull out an easy W. Gotta love this team.

It’s a long way until the magic of 2007’s Rocktober, but the 2009 Rockies are brewing a little magic of their own:

With the Giants crushing the souls of their fans earlier in the day, Colorado now holds a four game lead in the Wild Card race.

Unfortunately, these two teams are done playing for the year, so any plunking of Prince will have to be delayed until 2010. In the meantime, the Giants -- 4-for-their-last-45 with RISP -- will continue to be mystified by the ability of other teams to get “hits” and score these “runs” they keep hearing so much about.

In this blog post, Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News points out what most everyone in the Bay Area has come to know this season; the Giants can pitch really, really well, but they can’t hit:

The problem doesn’t stop with the ineptitude with runners in scoring position. The Giants lack fundamentals, which was exemplified by Juan Uribe popping up a bunt in a key situation yesterday:

Fielder’s 37th home run of the year was the game winner, as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the San Francisco Giants in 12 innings at home.

The loss drops San Francisco to two games behind the Colorado Rockies in the NL Wild Card race.

Jonathan Sanchez had a solid outing for the Giants, going six innings and allowing one run on six hits, three walks, and striking out nine. Merkin Valdez took the loss for the Giants.