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Posted 06/14/2007 at 11:19 PM
There are times during a season when you say to yourself, "This one is definitely going to hit," or "I should've known that team was going to win." There are also times when you feel so good about a game, and handicap it the right way, then the team comes through for a perfect victory. That happened with the Colorado Rockies on Thursday night.
To be fair, let's back this story up to the middle of April. Brandon Webb had been coming off a Cy Young season when he faced the Rockies for the second time. The first time around he got a no-decision, allowing five earned runs. But the second start was not at Coors Field, instead at Chase Field. Webb was racked again by the Rox, allowing 5 ER in a loss. The next time Webb faced the Rockies at Coors Field, he allowed 4 ER in another loss. But Colorado was still below .500. What was it about facing Brandon Webb?
Fast forward to most recently, early June. The Rockies tag Baltimore's Erik Bedard for a pair of runs in a 6-1 victory over the Orioles. Colorado then racks Curt Schilling for 5 ER in a 12-2 thrashing of the Red Sox. Something's up here.
Going into Thursday's game with the Red Sox at Fenway, the Rockies were 6-3 (+6.64 units) this season facing pitchers in the top 20 in the bigs in strikeouts. Josh Beckett came into the contest 30th in K's and was 9-0. But, Jeff Francis is Colorado's best pitcher facing a lineup that doesn't succeed against leftys. Colorado closed at +200, and seeing them hang with the Red Sox in a 2-1 loss in the opener, then win the second contest by ten runs, this was shaping up to be another Rockies win.
The Rockies score in the 1st on a Todd Helton RBI single, then load the bases a couple innings later as Garrett Atkins unloads on a fastball for a grand slam over the Green Monster (Atkins hit two other balls off the Monster in the game). Matt Holliday added another homer off Beckett as the Rockies cruised 7-1.
It felt good to take information from earlier in the season and piece it together for the right time and right matchup, and not have to sweat it out or have something flukey bail you out. This was my best win all season because situations from earlier in the season were applied to handicapping this scenario and it cashed in a big way.
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