MLB: COLORADO TURNABOUT // NBA: CONFERENCE FINALS

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“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

MLB:   Sometimes it’s the undercard that’s the better fight, and quite often rear-of-the-pack vehicles provide the more interesting, more exciting NASCAR race. It can be that way during a baseball season, two bottom-of-the-pile teams fighting it out for a better standing, which is what the last four games between the Colorado Rockies and the Houston Astros seems to have been about, each in fourth place of their respective divisions, the Rockies finishing with its first sweep of the season---four straight wins, while the Astros turned out numerous base runners and home runs in spite of losing the four games.

And when the last game of a series sweep is one of the winning team’s best performances of the season, well, it’s special, and perhaps the start of a climb toward and then above .500. That’s where the currently 21-29/.420 Rockies ought to be seeing themselves now, and surely they were feeling the turnabout in the first two innings of game four versus the Astros, after putting up five runs in the first and four in the second.

It was indeed a hitting party, Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it better. Bottom half of the first inning and back as lead-off batter, Colorado center-fielder, Dexter Fowler, walked, not especially dynamic but then infielder, Marco Scutaro, banged a line drive, reaching first base as Fowler made it to third. Next to the plate went left fielder, Carlos Gonzalez, who belted a home run that sent Fowler and Scutaro across the plate, score: 3-0, Rockies (this was Gonzalez’ fourth homer of the series and fourth for four at-bats, his third RBI-homer of the series).

Soon right fielder, Michael Cuddyer, placed a line drive past second base for a single, and afterward Rockies first baseman, Todd Helton, delivered a double, pushing Cuddyer home. Next batter, catcher Willin Rosario, became the Rockies first out of the game, but infielder, Jordan Pacheco, followed with a double, sending Helton home, Pacheco soon stealing to third base. The next two batters were the half inning’s additional outs.

Bottom of the second, Fowler obtained another walk, soon stole to second base. Afterward, Gonzalez walked, too, unable to produce a major league record of five HR’s from five at-bats. Not unlucky for the Rockies, however, Gonzalez reached second base behind Fowler’s rush to third, both spurred on from a wild Astro throw. Then Cuddyer doubled and Fowler and Gonzalez crossed the plate, the Rockies with seven runs now. Rosario followed with a single, moving Cuddyer home, and next Pacheco hit for a double and Rosario crossed the plate, Rockies ahead with nine. The team’s tenth run happened in the fourth inning, from a Cuddyer line drive that sent Gonzalez home. The eleventh Colorado run was a Scutaro homer.

And during most of this, Colorado RHP hurler, Jeremy Guthrie, held the Astros back, final score, Rockies 11, Astros, 6. Relieved in the seventh inning, Guthrie recorded the win, his third for the season, a downside of his performance the Astro homers.

That adage “If it aint broke don’t fix it” lost its edge as the Rockies kept sinking below .500, having lost 16 games in May, which included three losing streaks---three straight, then five in a row, later six losses in a row, enough to build rumors of a curse and surely evidence for a slew of fixes to occur. Makeover time arrived before the Rockies were to face the Astros.

Seen during the Colorado/Houston series was a Rockies team more young than old---of the nine players facing the Astros on Thursday night, observed were Scutaro at shortstop (subbing for injured Troy Tulowitzki, out for around 15 games), Cuddyer, Rosario, Pacheco, infielder Dj LeMahieu, and Guthrie, each in their first season with the Rockies, joined by veterans Fowler, Gonzalez and Helton. Add from the bullpen, Matt Reynolds and Josh Roenicke, relatively new to frequent mound work. Not that the veterans aren’t major contributors. Rather, the newer Rockies were, especially in game four vs. the Astros, base-runners for hitters like Gonzalez and Helton to send home, or they were catalysts allowing Helton as an extra-base hitter to cross the plate. This was baseball as it should be played, providing the game that fans pay in advance to see. Among other Rockies pitchers for other days? The young Christian Friedrich, and Drew Pomeranz.

It may be that the Rockies youth-dominant line-up + young pitching crew is the solution to Colorado’s below .500 problem. Then again, maybe not! But staying with it as the Rockies play three games against the Los Angeles Dodgers starting today, then three versus the Arizona Diamondbacks, is probably a wise “. . . don’t fix it” application, especially staying with the line-up that purchased 11 runs on Thursday. Because the Dodgers are 11 games ahead of the Rockies in the National League-West, and the Diamondbacks but two ahead of the Rockies in third place, these six games present a make or break curve in the season that could make the difference between the Rockies being a winning or rear-of-the-pack franchise by September.          

NBA:  Though still too early to tell with great confidence which conference teams will be vying for the upcoming NBA national championship, to be kept in mind is that while the San Antonio Spurs are ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder two games to one, the Thunder has, to date, outscored the Spurs across their three games, 311 points to 303. If number of total points scored across a number of games were to be the criteria for winning, the Thunder would be the leading Western Conference franchise (as of now). After two games, the Miami Heat leads with 208 points, to Boston’s 190, a differential signaling Heat dominance (as of now). In a single game, the Spurs lost from a score below 90, and the Celtics lost a single game to the Heat with the lowest scores from among these conference teams (to date), 79.

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