17 posts tagged “colorado rockies”

Round 1 of the 2009 MLB Playoffs has completed, and I did not do very well in my predictions, which you can point and laugh at here.

Of course, predictions are just that. Results you expect to occur, hopefully with some rhyme and reason to back it all up. Whether they actually become reality or not, is a whole nother story.

So first, a little wrap-up of the ALDS and NLDS before moving onto the ALCS and NLDS.

Reality: Yankees in 3 games

The only prediction that I got right, and I suspect that a lot of people got right too. The Twins weren't good enough to compete with the Bombers, and even during the games that they might have actually taken from the Yanks, they couldn't win. Game 2 was the ultimate in that case, with the Phil Cuzzi blown call in leftfield taking center stage, but the Twins had numerous opportunities to score in that game and never did.

Closer Joe Nathan continued his terrible postseason by giving up a game-tying HR in the bottom of the 9th of Game 2 to A-Rod, and also gave up 2 hits to the Yankees in the 9th inning of Game 3. Those hits led to 2 Yankee runs which were charged to other Twins relievers, but Nathan couldn't stop the Yankees from scoring. As great as Joe Nathan is during the regular season, he's been quite awful in the postseason, posting a 7.88 ERA.

It's the most...wonderful tiiiiime of the year!!!!

The season is almost over, save for that 163rd game between the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins to determine the winner of the AL Central, but otherwise, it's time for the 2009 season awards.

I've been somewhat neglectful again of updating this blog on a consistent basis. The reason? Real life interferes.

But hopefully I'll find a little more time between all the sports action going on with the Mets and Angels, and other baseball playoff matchups, college football season now underway, and the NHL season starting in October.

So, with that out of the way, let's briefly talk about the New York Mets.

Through 143 games played, the Mets are 63-80. There are 19 games remaining in the season, so the chances of going 81-81 are virtually impossible unless the club goes 18-1. Now it's a matter of 70 wins instead of 81. Can they get there?

Back on August 6, I predicted that the Mets were going to end up with a final record of 77-85. However, even that seems unlikely unless they can go 14-5 to finish out the season. Possible, still not very probable, especially considering how the club has played over the past month.

Now, at best, the Mets are in the role of potentially playing spoilers to the rest of the NL East as they'll be playing Atlanta, Florida and Washington the rest of the way. None of them are in a strong position to take the NL Wild Card away from either the Colorado Rockies or Los Angeles Dodgers, although mathematically, Atlanta and Florida are still in the hunt.

As for 2010, there's going to be a LOT of talk going into the offseason as to what this Mets organization needs to do in order to rebound. The desperate need for a power-hitting leftfielder. How will the team fill holes at catcher, 1B, and the starting rotation? Will the bullpen undergo another overhaul outside of Frankie and Feliciano? That will all be covered in due time.

Right now, the Met players that are still healthy simply need to focus upon doing the best they can on the field. For many of them, this is an audition for a spot in the majors come 2010, never mind the Mets.

Every year, MLB begins their All-Star game balloting near the end of April, which is far too early. I advocate for voting only after June 1, as you simply cannot elect players to the All-Star game based on less than one month of baseball.

The New York Mets are not off to a good start.

None of the starting pitchers except for Johan Santana are pitching with any semblance of consistency.

With the exception of a winning start over San Diego on April 15, Oliver Perez has been absolutely terrible.

The jury is still out on Mike Pelfrey and John Maine, and Livan Hernandez has so far only been able to pitch well against the Marlins and no one else. As it is, the expectations for Livan Hernandez are quite low.

While Frankie Rodriguez has not blown any saves yet, and he will, JJ Putz and Sean Green have not held leads during the last two games of the series against the Florida Marlins at CitiField. While these things are bound to happen, you don't want to see them happen two games in a row.

David Wright is off to a very bad start, and he's whiffing at a record pace for him. Slow starts are one thing, but striking out like you're Ryan Howard is another. On the other hand, you can see that his numbers for the month of April 2009 are still better than his start to April 2007, with only the strikeouts being the major increase.
April 2005: 17 strikeouts in 76 ABs, 23 games, .303 / .418 / .539
April 2006: 13 strikeouts in 89 ABs, 24 games. .303 / .377 / .584
April 2007: 23 strikeouts in 90 ABs. 24 games. .244 / .370 / .311
April 2008: 16 strikeouts in 96 ABs. 26 games. .281 / .417 / .531 (one game on March 31, 2008 also included)
April 2009: 27 strikeouts in 82 ABs. 21 games. .280 / .372 / .390

The highest amount of strikeouts David Wright has ever had in a single month was May 2006, when he struck out 29 times, but in 27 games and 110 ABs. He still remained far more productive during that period though, hitting .336 / .408 / .500.

However, slow starts do not rule out a team's ability to get to the posteason come October.

Here are the 21-game records of the World Series teams (both winner and loser) dating back to 2000. I use 21 as the benchmark since that's how many games the Mets have played in the 2009 season as of April 30.

(Teams with below .500 records after 21 games are bolded and italicized.)
2000: New York Yankees (14-7) and New York Mets (14-7)
2001: Arizona Diamondbacks (11-10) and New York Yankees (11-10)
2002: Anaheim Angels (7-14) and San Francisco Giants (13-8)
2003: Florida Marlins (10-11) and New York Yankees (18-3)
2004: Boston Red Sox (15-6) and St. Louis Cardinals (10-11)
2005: Chicago White Sox (16-5) and Houston Astros (8-13)
2006: St. Louis Cardinals (14-7) and Detroit Tigers (13-8)
2007: Boston Red Sox (14-7) and Colorado Rockies (8-13)
2008: Philadelphia Phillies (11-10) and Tampa Bay Rays (10-11)

The 2009 Mets are 9-12 after 21 games.

Is it better to have a strong start than not? Absolutely.
Can teams come back from slow April starts to win the World Series or make the postseason? Absolutely, although you might have to settle for the Wild Card (2002 Angels, 2003 Florida, 2005 Houston, 2007 Colorado,)

It's also important to remember that you can have the best regular season record over the course of a season, and not even make the World Series. Just ask Lou Piniella and his 2001 Seattle Mariners with their 116-46 record. They lost the ALCS to the Yankees in just 5 games. Or last year's Los Angeles Angels that ran away with the AL West crown and an MLB season-best record of 100-62, only to lose to Boston in the ALDS (again... grrrr!) in 4 games.

Can a strong April be absolutely worthless when it comes to the end result in September? Look no further than the 2008 Arizona Diamondbacks, who were 15-6 after their first 21 games, only to end up in 2nd place in the NL West when the season ended. Conversely, the Los Angeles Dodgers started 2008 9-12, and ended up winning the NL West division. The Oakland A's were 12-9 after their first 21 in 2008, and finished the season well below .500 at 75-86.

There's no shortage of examples on both sides of the coin. So when people panic about their team in April if they're not off to a 20+ win month, it's generally unwarranted. Of course, if you're a Washington Nationals fan, you can safely throw in the towel.

The Mets do have cause for concern, and they're going to need to kick things into high gear over the month of May if they want to compete for the NL East crown or the NL Wild Card. With 16 of 29 games against NL East teams in May, the Mets are going to need to win as many of those games as possible to get back into this race.

It's the last MLB game before the All-Star break, pitting the surging New York Mets against the hapless Colorado Rockies. The Mets are on a 8-game winning streak, having taken 3 out of 4 from Philadelphia at Citizen's Bank Park, then sweeping the San Francisco Giants at Shea Stadium in 3 games, and have won the last two from Colorado at Shea as well.

If the Mets win today, they will finish up a half-game behind Philadelphia at the All-Star break, a place where very few people thought the Mets could end up just a month ago. Part of the Mets surge is thanks to the Phillies' own record over the last month or so.

Since Jerry Manuel took over the New York Mets on June 17, 2008 while in Anaheim, the Mets have a 16-9 record. Over that same period of time, the Phillies are 10-14. It didn't help Philadelphia's cause losing that series to the Mets recently.

In the month of July, the Mets are an impressive 10-2, and tonight, they look to go into the All-Star break sweeping another joke of an NL West team, the way they should have done a couple of times earlier in the season.

---------------------------------------------------------------

5:05pm: ESPN just did a piece on Matt Holliday set to very somber music. Did he die or something?

Top of 1st Inning:

5:10pm: Scott Podsednik hits a ball up the middle into centerfield for a leadoff single.

5:12pm: ESPN broadcaster Jon Miller brings up the remarkable pitching the Mets have had over the last 5 games, setting a modern era record, giving up less than 3 hits in 5 consecutive games.

5:13pm: Clint Barmes grounds into a 6-4-3 doubleplay. 2 out.

5:14pm: Ramon Castro takes a life-shortening foulball off the bat of Matt Holliday into his mask which stuns him for a bit.

5:15pm: Mike Pelfrey gets Matt Holliday swinging and missing at the next two pitches for Pelfrey's first K of the game. 3 out.

Bottom of 1st Inning:

5:18pm: It's a crying shame that the Mets bench is so short that they have to use minor-leaguer-that-can't-hit-MLB-pitching-Nick Evans in LF. That's a situation GM Omar Minaya is going to have to solve over the next couple of weeks.

5:19pm: Jose Reyes hits a hard liner right to 1B Joe Koshansky for the first out.

5:20pm: Of course as soon as I take a knock at Nick Evans, he hits the first pitch he sees into centerfield for a single. Granted, it's off of Rockies pitcher Mark Redman, who hasn't been all that good since 2003 while with the championship Florida Marlins.

5:21pm: David Wright takes a walk. Nick Evans over to 2nd.

5:24pm: Carlos Beltran goes BOOM with a looooong 3-run blast into the leftfield bullpen. Mets go up 3-0.

5:25pm: Damion Easley lines a grounder into 2B Omar Quintanilla, 4-3. 2 out.

5:26pm: Jon Miller says Beltran's HR went an estimated 415 feet.

5:27pm: Carlos Delgado pops out to shallow left-centerfield and the ball almost drops until SS Clint Barmes is able to run it down. 3 out.

Top of 2nd Inning:

5:30pm: Brad Hawpe grounds out, 4-3. 1 out.

5:31pm: Garrett Atkins keeps Damion Easley busy by also grounding out to him. 4-3. 2 out.

5:32pm: Mike Pelfrey strikes out Joe Koshansky with a sinker. 3 out. A very economical 10-pitch inning for Pelfrey.

Bottom of 2nd Inning:

5:35pm: Fernando Tatis hits the weakest grounder ever back to pitcher Mark Redman, though not weak enough to make it look like a swinging bunt. 1-3. 1 out.

5:36pm: Ramon Castro lines a ball into centerfield for a single. Mike Pelfrey will surely be up to bunt.

5:37pm: Mike Pelfrey hits a nice sac bunt on the first pitch back to pitcher Mark Redman. 1-3. 2 out. Castro to 2nd.

5:39pm: Jose Reyes hits a chopper over the middle just over Mark Redman and through the middle infield that scores Ramon Castro from 2nd. Mets up 4-0.

5:43pm: Nick Evans goes the other way by hitting a single to right-centerfield. Jose Reyes to 3rd. You know Mark Redman really sucks when he's allowing Nick Evans to tee off on him.

5:44pm: David Wright hits the first pitch he sees hard at 2B Omar Quintanilla who fields it and tosses to SS Clint Barmes at 2nd for the 3rd out. 4-6.

Top of 3rd Inning:

5:48pm: Pelfrey gets ahead of Yorvit Torrealba with a 1-2 count and gets him swinging at the high heat for a K. 1 out.

5:52pm: Omar Quintanilla has a great AB against Mike Pelfrey, fouling off a ton of pitches before he smashes a 400-ft ground-rule double over the centerfield fence. The Mets are lucky it bounced over or it would have been a triple.

5:53pm: Mark Redman hits a sac bunt back to Pelfrey, 1-3. 2 out. Quintanilla to 3rd.

5:55pm: Scott Podsednik gets jammed and hits a weak grounder towards 3B David Wright who charges and throws the speedy Podsednik out at 1B. 5-3. 3 out.

Bottom of 3rd Inning:

5:59pm: Carlos Beltran hits a hard line drive past the glove of pitcher Mark Redman that goes up the middle for a leadoff single.

6:00pm: Damion Easley hits the ball right back to Mark Redman who hesitates a second before throwing to 2nd for the out, which may have eliminated the double play, since Easley is called safe at 1st on the throw. Replays show that Easley was out but it was very very close. 1-6. 1 out.

6:02pm: Carlos Delgado grounds into a double play, 5-6-3. 3 out.

Top of 4th Inning:

6:07pm: Clint Barmes goes down swinging. 1 out.

6:08pm: Matt Holliday hits a ball like a swinging bunt that goes towards 3B. David Wright charges and fields but has no play on Holliday.

6:10pm: Brad Hawpe singles into left-centerfield with Holliday running on the 3-2 pitch.  Holliday to 3rd.

6:12pm: Garrett Atkins hits a grounder to David Wright. Wright throws in the dirt to 2B Damion Easley, who somehow fields it cleanly and still manages to throw to Delgado at 1B without being affected by the sliding Brad Hawpe. 5-4-3 doubleplay. 3 out.

Bottom of 4th Inning:

6:17pm: Fernando Tatis hits a 2-2 pitch up the middle through the rickets of Mark Redman and past a diving Omar Quintanilla for a single.

6:18pom: Ramon Castro singles to RF Brad Hawpe. Fernando Tatis races to 3rd on the play and slides in safe.

6:20pm: Mike Pelfrey bunts up the 1st base line, moving up Castro to 2nd base. 1B Koshansky fields the ball and throws to 2B Omar Quintanilla at first. 3-4. 1 out.

6:21pm: Jose Reyes gets the intentional pass to load up the bases and pitch to the weak Nick Evans. Except that Evans already has 2 singles off Redman today.

6:22pm: That's all for Mark Redman, who pitched terribly against the Mets today. 3.1 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HR.
6'7" righty Ryan Speier comes in for relief with the bases loaded, 1 out. Not an easy jam to get out of, even with Nick Evans up.

6:24pm: Nick Evans hits a shot into CF but Scott Podsednik tracks it down. Sac fly for Evans, with Tatis scoring easily. 2 out. Castro tags up to 3rd. Mets up 5-0.

6:25pm: David Wright swings at the first pitch he sees, hitting a hard grounder but right at 3B Garrett Atkins. 5-3. 3 out.

Top of 5th Inning:

6:29pm: Joe Koshansky singles into CF.

6:30pm: Yorvit Torrealba grounds into a routine doubleplay. 6-4-3. 2 out.

6:32pm: Omar Quintanilla grounds to Carlos Delgado's right, but Delgado is able to field it and throw to Pelfrey covering first for the out. 3-1. 3 out.

Bottom of 5th Inning:

6:36pm: Carlos Beltran bloops a single into leftfield for his 3rd hit of the day.

6:37pm: Damion Easley grounds out to 1B Joe Koshansky. 3-6. They try and complete the 3-6-3 double play but Easley beats the throw back to 1st.

6:38pm: Carlos Delgado hits a low inside fastball for one of his patented moonshot blasts that goes a mile in the air before coming down just short of the giant scoreboard. A gigantor Delgado HR, Mets up 7-0.

6:39pm: Fernando Tatis grounds out to SS Clint Barmes. 6-3. 2 out.

6:40pm: Ramon Castro skies out to LF Matt Holliday. 3 out.

Top of 6th Inning:

6:44pm: Seth Smith pinch-hits for Ryan Speier. Smith grounds out, 4-3. 1 out.

6:45pm: Scott Podsednik lines a ball off of Mike Pelfrey's left foot which deflects towards 2B Damion Easley, who throws to Delgado at 1B. Score that 1-4-3. 2 out.

6:46pm: Clint Barmes flies out to shallow center just beyond the lip of the grass. 2B Damion Easley brings it down for the 3rd out. Jon Miller notes that's the first flyball out the Rockies have hit all game.

Bottom of 6th Inning:

6:48pm: Matt Herges is on in relief for the Colorado Rockies. Mike Pelfrey at the plate in a non-sacrifice situation, so he'll be attempting to swing away.

6:49pm: Mike Pelfrey strokes a 2-1 curveball into LF for a leadoff single.

6:50pm: Jose Reyes grounds into a 4-6-3 doubleplay. Quintanilla to Barmes to Koshansky. 2 out.

6:52pm: Nick Evans hits a soft line drive bloop into shallow rightfield which is caught by 2B Omar Quintanilla in a nice grab. 3 out.

Top of 7th Inning:

6:56pm: Matt Holiday strikes out looking. 1 out.

6:57pm: Brad Hawpe grounds out to SS Jose Reyes. 6-3. 2 out.

6:58pm: Garret Atkins lines out softly to 2B Damion Easley. 3 out.

Bottom of 7th Inning:

7:04pm: Luis Vizcaino is now pitching in relief for the Rockies. David Wright hits a high flyball to CF Scott Podsednik. 1 out.

7:07pm: Carlos Beltran strikes out looking. 2 out.

7:09pm: Jon Miller notes that the Mets improved play coincided with the DL trip of Luis Castillo and the resurgence of Damion Easley. I think it's not just Easley, but a combination of the bullpen, starting pitching, and the bench guys finally performing at the level they should be.

7:10pm: Damion Easley strikes out. 3 out.

Top of 8th Inning:

7:14pm: Joe Koshanky grounds out to 2B Damion Easley. 4-3. 1 out.

7:16pm: Mike Pelfrey hits Yorvit Torrealba with a pitch on the elbow which sends Torrealba walking for a while, gritting out the pain before finally going to 1st base.

7:18pm: Omar Quintanilla is fighting off a lot of pitches again. The last time this happened, he hit a ground rule double.

7:19pm: This time Quintanilla fouls out to David Wright, who catches the ball right in front of Peter Gammons. 2 out.

7:20pm: Jayson Nix is in to pinch-hit for Luis Vizcaino's spot.

7:21pm: Big "Pelfrey" chant among the fans at Shea. Pelfrey is ahead 0-2 on Nix.

7:22pm: Jayson Nix hits a 95 MPH fastball on the ground in-between Wright and Reyes for a single.

7:23pm: Pelfrey has thrown 114 pitches at this point, and pitching coach Dan Warthen had initially said that he didn't want Pelfrey to go more than 100 pitches tonight. Warthen visits the mound to check on his pitcher, and he'll stay in the game for now. Now the fans chant "LETS GO PELFREY!"

7:26pm: Scott Podsednik fouls out to 3B David Wright. 3 out. The fans go nuts for Pelfrey, who is done for the night.

Bottom of 8th Inning:

7:29pm: During the commercial break, Pelfrey gave the fans a curtain call hat tip.

7:31pm: Brian Fuentes, now on in relief for Colorado, strikes out Carlos Delgado. 1 out.

7:34pm: Fernando Tatis flies out to RF Brad Hawpe. 2 out.

7:36pm: Ramon Castro strikes out. 3 out.

Top of 9th Inning:

7:40pm: Joe Smith is on to pitch the 9th for the Mets.

7:41pm: Clint Barmes grounds out to 3B David Wright. 5-3. 1 out.

7:42pm: A fan in the crowd shows his broom to the camera, indicative of sweeping the Rockies. You can't bring brooms into Dodger Stadium because it could be used as a weapon, or it might actually be used to sweep up the trash there, made up mostly of Dodger fans.

7:43pm: Matt Holliday grounds out to Damion Easley, 4-3. 2 out.

7:44pm: Brad Hawpe singles to CF. That's the 7th Rocky hit of the game. Hawpe steals 2nd uncontested on the first pitch strike to Garrett Atkins.

7:45pm: Garrett Atkins hits a liner right to David Wright at 3B. 3 out. Game Over. Mets win 7-0.

This is the 9th win in a row for the Mets, the 4th shutout in the last 6 games. Granted, it helps to pitch against the shit teams of the NL West when you want to fatten up.

Keys to the Mets win:

• Lights-out pitching from Mike Pelfrey, who is easily the #2 pitcher on the team right now, and some might even say the best. His line tonight: 8 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K.
• Pelfrey has been amazing since May 31 against Los Angeles. Even his bad starts (June 16 vs. Angels and Yankees) are games the Mets won.
• Carlos Beltran's 3-run HR in the 1st gave Pelfrey all the runs he needed.
• Carlos Delgado's ridiculous HR moonshot off Ryan Speier may have hit a jet before it fell.
• Joe Smith allows a baserunner in the 9th, but who cares? The Mets bullpen is also firing on all cylinders.

There's still a lot more baseball left to play, and one hopes the All-Star Break doesn't stop the Mets winning momentum.

After the break, the Mets go on the road for a 4-game series at Cincinnati before returning to Shea to face the Phillies and Cardinals in 3-game sets.

Dodger "rookie" Hiroki Kuroda took a perfect game into the 8th inning tonight against the Atlanta Braves, ending with a CG 1-hit shutout thanks to a Mark Teixiera double. The Dodgers won 3-0.  

Don't blink, but Joe Torre is now at the helm of a first-place team.

Of course, the L.A. Dodgers are also a game below .500, much like the Arizona Diamondbacks, who share the same 1st-place record in the NL West of 44-45.

Torre's former team, the New York Yankees, have a much better record now that they've gotten out of their funk during the first 2.5 months. They're 47-42, yet 8.5 games out of first behind Tampa.

While it's highly doubtful that the winner of the NL West in September will be under .500, it does  show just how awful the teams of the NL West are.

Remember the hot start of the Arizona Diamondbacks this season when they went 20-8? They're 24-37 since.

Even though they're only 5 and 6.5 games out of first respectively, it seems quite doubtful that the San Francisco Giants or Colorado Rockies have a shot at catching up. But with a lot of baseball left to play, anything seems possible in a division of such weak teams. 

Delgado’s day/night splits this season are now at a point where there is enough of a sample to derive data from, since the Mets have now played 81 games this season.

And the differences are… day and night. Overwhelmingly.

Delgado’s numbers during day games - .295/.352/.616 (.969 OPS)
Delgado’s numbers during night games - .190/.283/.291 (.573 OPS)

He now has 10 HRs in 30 Day Games (116 ABs), compared to 4 HRs in 49 Night Games (179 ABs).

Over the last 2 seasons, Delgado’s numbers during day games were better than night games, but not substantially enough to raise a red flag. Over the course of his career, he’s been pretty even, with a slight skew towards better performance during day games than night games.

This season, it’s a huge difference.

Then it got me wondering... Of those 4 HRs in 49 night games, when during the game did it take place? Was there natural light in the sky? Was the sun on its way down? Or was it truly "night"? So, I did a little more researching and looked at the video replays of those HRs.

Delgado's 4 HRs during night games came...
May 22nd vs Atlanta (7:10pm start) - 2nd inning - natural daylight
May 23rd vs Colorado (7:05pm start) - 6th inning - dark night sky, zero natural daylight
June 18th vs Angels (7:05pm start) - 4th inning - This one was hard to tell. Even though I was there, I don't remember the amount of light in the sky when the HR was hit. The video clip of the HR doesn't give you a good idea either. Sunset that night was 8:08pm, which is probably around the same time of the 4th inning. I did see natural daylight in the sky in the video clip of Marlon Anderson's sac fly that scored Reyes the previous inning, so my best guess is that there was indeed still a fair amount of natural daylight in the sky.
June 20th vs Colorado (7:05 start) - 2nd inning - natural daylight

So basically, when it's really dark out, you know "nighttime," Carlos Delgado only has 1 HR in 2008.

The Texas Rangers are the ultimate in polar opposites, making for a .500 record of 34-34.

They are the best hitting team in MLB (Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Milton Bradley).
And they also have the worst pitching in MLB. (Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla (default ace), Scott Feldman, Kason Gabbard).

They even have a manager in Ron Washington who weathered an early headhunting this season as many were calling for his firing.

The good news is that the Mets starting pitching has been ranged anywhere from adequate (Maine, Pedro) to good (Perez) to fantastic (Pelfrey, Santana) over the past 9 games.

The bad news is the Mets' bullpen. A 4.14 bullpen ERA is 13th in the NL. In losing six of their last seven, the relievers have a 7.43 ERA, and Wagner is 0-1 with a 23.14 ERA in his last three appearances.

The Mets are 4-7 in June going into the series against the Rangers, and they're in desperate need of series wins. After winning series against Florida, Los Angeles and San Francisco, going 7-3 over those games, the team then lost 6 out of 7 games, losing 4 straight to San Diego and dropping 2 out of 3 to Arizona.

The pitching matchups definitely favor the Mets, even with the shaky bullpen that has reared its head over the past week. The problem is offense. The Mets bats are wildly inconsistent and sputter to score runs and there's no rhyme nor reason as to when/why their bats will heat up or cool down. Texas doesn't have that problem.

It goes without saying that the Mets must win this series before they go back on the road to face an extremely tough AL West-leading Angels, and another 3 against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver. The same very weak NL West basement-dwelling team that took 2 of 3 from New York over Memorial Day Weekend.

The season isn't over yet, but the clock is ticking for the turnaround.