Lawrie Suspended & Fined After Ejection

Toronto Blue Jays prospect Brett Lawrie was ejected on Wednesday when he was called out on strikes by home-plate umpire Bill Miller. Lawrie started out his at bat problems when he allowed a pitch to go by which appeared to be ball four. Miller called the ball a strike despite Lawrie’s disagreement. With a 3-2 count, Rays pitcher Fernando Rodney blew a fastball on the outside part of the plate which also looked to be ball four. Lawrie jogged down the first base line thinking it was a walk just to be wrung up by Bill Miller. The pitch was obviously high and outside. Lawrie’s actions following that cost him an ejection and four more games. He crouched down in disbelief and began to argue with Miller. Instantly, he was run from the game but Lawrie wasn’t finished. He took off the batting helment and spiked it at the ground which bounced off of Miller and caused him to turn around. Following Lawrie’s ejection was Blue Jays manager John Farrel’s as he also disagreed with the two pitches that were called strikes. After the game, Lawrie was suspended for four games and appealed today.

“I just think that it’s easiest to put this behind me,” Lawrie told a group of reporters on Thursday afternoon. “I feel like this is an opportunity for me to end it. Plus, getting it reduced, it was a coin flip. We didn’t know if they were going to reduce the games or what not. I think it’s just easy enough to suck this one up and take these four games and move on.”

As a fan of Lawrie, I was disappointed by his actions, but the apology was done in a professional manor. I would expect other fans of him to forgive for his actions.

 

Starting Lineups for Padres at Rockies

Rockies starting lineup:

  1. Marco Scuturo-SS
  2. Dexter Fowler-CF
  3. Carlos Gonzalez-LF
  4. Michael Cuddyer-RF
  5. Todd Helton-1B
  6. Wilin Rosario
  7. Chris Nelson
  8. Jonathan Herrera
  9. Juan Nicasio

Padres starting lineup:

  1. Wil Venable
  2. Chris Denorfia
  3. Chase Headley
  4. Jose Guzman
  5. Yonder Alonso
  6. Nick Hundley
  7. Jason Bartlett
  8. Orlando Hudson
  9. Clayton Richard

Rodriguez Ties Griffey in Home Runs

Alex Rodriguez is creeping up on Barry Bonds in the All-Time home run list. A-Rod tied Ken Griffey Jr. in career home runs for fifth on the home run list today. He blasted a shot of Ervin Santana in the bottom of third on a shot to center field giving him the first RBI and home run of the year.

Although, Rodriguez has had issues with PED’s in the past, he has still recovered from that and turned out to still be a great hitter. Taking out the years he took steroids (2001-2003), the years that he played with the Texas Rangers, he would still have 474 home runs. After being moved to the three hole in the line A-Rod has progressed.

If Alex Rodriguez can hit 31 home runs this year, he will tie Willie Mays at fourth place on the home run list who is only followed by former home run leaders Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755). Barry Bonds technically is the all-time home run leader but he has had some PED problems also.

Barry Bonds has tested positive for steroids seven times over his career. Bonds has been found guilty for obstruction. Bonds was on a list of serveral who had tested positive including Brian Roberts, Jason Giambi, and David Justice.

Helton, Hernandez Come Through For the Rockies

The Rockies started off the series well as they won a close one here in Denver of a score of 7-6.

After the fourth inning, the Rockies hopes of winning were very slim. They weren’t doing horrible but definitely not as well as the D-Backs. In the top of the first, future star Paul Goldschmidt hit a line drive single to center scoring Justin Upton and Miguel Montero. The Rockies came right back at the D-Backs when Dexter Fowler hit a solo home run. Ramon Hernandez added another run as he too hit a solo home run in the second. With the score tied 2-2, the D-Backs came alive. Miguel Montero hit his first homer of the season as he lifted one out to right field in the third. Geoff Blum hit a sac fly and Ryan Roberts hit a RBI double to make it 6-2..

The Rockies weren’t done though. Ramon Hernandez hit a two run double to make it 6-4. Then, in the fourth, Todd Helton came through as he smashed a two-run single to make it 6-6. Nothing happened until the bottom of the eighth inning when Helton came up again with two on. On a 2-2 pitch, Helton hit the ball out to deep right field. The ball stayed fair but only but a couple of yards. Carlos Gonzalez was able to jog home from third make it 7-6 Rockies. Rafael Betancourt finished the D-Backs off to secure the save.

“That was a character building win right there,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said after the game. “Obviously Juan [Nicasico] didn’t have it tonight, but our bullpen tonight, just like yesterday afternoon, was tremendous. I think personally the difference in the game was in the top of the fourth inning when [Jason] Kubel singled and [Justin] Upton doubles and they had second and third with no body out. The pitching we saw from Esmil Rodgers was possibly the best we have saw since he’s put on a Rockies uniform at the major league level. I’ve never seen him better.

Rockies Regain the Lead

The Colorado Rockies have regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. Marco Scuturo reached on an error to begin the inning. Emmaunel Burriss lost his footing at second which caused Brandon Belt to come off the base allowing Scuturo to reach. Dexter Fowler singled to left but Scuturo tried to make it to third. Nate Schierholtz, who has a great arm, tried to gun him down but Scuturo slid out of the way of the tag. Fowler advances to second on the play. Carlos Gonzalez hit a ball to first baseman Brandon Belt. He fielded the ball cleanly and Guillermo Mota just reached the bag to get the diving Gonzalez out at first base.Marco Scuturo and Dexter Fowler advanced to tie up the game at seven.  Troy Tulowitzki dipped a ball into right-center field allowing Fowler to score to give the Rockies the lead.

Todd Helton came up to face Mota now. He hit a high pitch to the right field corner which bounced off the foul ball line just allowing the ball to be fair. The hit turned out to be a 350 ft. single. Tulo reached third. Michael Cuddyer hit a double following that allowing Tulo to score. The Rockies are now up 9-7 in the bottom of the fifth. Stay tuned for more update and score alerts.

Live: Rockies In Trouble in the Fourth

Working on a shutout, Jeremy Guthrie hit the worst inning so far with the Rockies. When the Rockies played Houston for their first game, Guthrie gave up back-to-back home runs. He did it again in this game. With the Rockies up 6-0 in the top of the fourth inning, Nate Schierholtz and Brandon Crawford also hit back-to-back home runs. Emmanuel Burriss singled and then stole second. He reached third after Brandon Belt grounded out. Angel Pagan walked before Melky Cabrera singled scoring Burriss to make it 6-3. KongFu Panda hit a double to left scoring Pagan and letting Melky Cabrera reach third. Pinch hitter Gregor Blanco walked to load the bases. With the score 6-4, Hector Sanchez, in his eighth MLB at bat, singled to tie the ballgame up at six. Nate Schierholtz came up again and gave the Giants the lead as he smacked a sac fly. The Rockies will have to work hard in order to get their lead back after that monster inning.

Player of the Week

Finally, the player of the week is someone who should have been player of the week for a long time. Stephen Strasburg has been selected to be Player of the Week on April 8-April 14, 2012. Strasburg was chosen to be Player of the Week after his amazing start against the New York Mets today. He threw seven innings of shutout ball while giving up only two hits while striking out nine. Strasburg could be a big hit this year if he can stay healthy. Stay tuned for next time’s Player of the Week. 

Game Preview: Giants at Rockies

Despite the odd tastes in music and such, Jeremy Guthrie has become a Rockie inside and out. He’ll have to show how he does in his first game in Coors Field tonight at 6:40 Mountain Time. With Tim Lincecum on the hill, the odds are not in the Rockies favor in this early season match up against two NL West teams. Although, Jeremy Guthrie will be the Rockies pitcher tonight. This will be his first game at the Mile High City and the first time pitching against the Giants in quite some time. In his other start against the Giants, he got the loss after pitching for six innings striking out two. On Friday night, Guthrie pitched a gem despite the back-to-back homers in the fourth. Guthrie will have the advantage against the hitters though. Only Melky Cabrera has faced Guthrie serveral times. He as hit one homer and seven RBI’s off the veteran.

Lincecum has faced the Rockies in many different occasions and hasn’t had the luck with them as you may think. In his career, he has gone 8-6 against the Rockies striking out 119 and having an ERA of 3.27. In most starts against the Rockies Lincecum has had, there have been low scoring games where the pitchers are battling as much as the batters are to hit the ball. The most consistent hitter on the Rockies Todd Helton has done the best of the young pitcher. In 33 at bats, Helton has hit .364.

Tim Lincecum hasn’t started off the season very well though. He lost his first game to the D-Backs giving up five runs, including two homers, in just five and a third. Lincecum has started the All-Star Game for the National League one year and has had a successful career so far. Is this going to be his down season though?

The Giants offense will need to come through as much as their pitching will in this game. Buster Posey and Brandon Belt will not return to the lineup today which might not boost the offense to a surge. Posey missed the entire season last year due to a ankle injury caused while blocking the plate. The Rockies offense will also need to back up Jeremy Guthrie. If Todd Helton hits a double in this game he will tie Bobby Abreu on the all time doubles leader list at #24. With just two walks away, Jason Giambi will tie Tony Phillips for 37th on the all time walks list at 1,317.

My predicted score for today’s game is: Giants 2 Rockies 1

Houston Evens Out the Series

Jamie Moyer has an excuse. Most 49 year olds can’t pitch for five innings and strike out two while giving up only three earned runs in the 7-3 loss against the Astros in the Metrodome. Moyer signed with the Rockies after he missed the entire season last year due to injury. He planned on coming back to play when he was 49. But with Moyer getting several wins in Spring Training, the Rockies decided to take a gamble in the second game of the season.

Troy Tulowitzki rounds second on his way to third on his RBI triple in the Rockies loss against Houston on Saturday.

The Rockies offense didn’t perform at there best. Michael Cuddyer went 2-for-4 in his Rockies debut. He blasted in the eighth and started off his Rockies career with a double to left field. Troy Tulowitzki continued his hot streak to start the season after he hit a triple scoring Dexter Fowler from first.

The Houston Astros offense came through against Moyer on Saturday as they blasted a total of six extra base hits, two of which were homers off of Moyer. Jordan Schafer and JD Martinez both hit home runs.

Lucas Harrell, the starting pitcher for the Astros pitched a real gem. In seven innings, he gave up only three hits while striking out four in the win.