Sunday, April 11, 2010

Troy Tulowitzki Costs Rockies the Game in the 14th Inning

The fans and the media have jumped on the Rockies 2010 bandwagon, because, on paper they look like a shoe-in to go all the way to the World Series. Everyone is also assuming that emotional maturity would eliminate some of the thoughtless mistakes that cost them games in the past. Not on the night of April 10, at least, because "Tulo" showed that he doesn't have what it takes when the chips are down. The scene: bottom of the 14th inning with Colorado trailing 5 to 4, and Todd Helton standing on first base after drawing a hard-fought walk. Troy has one purpose, and one purpose only; that being to move Helton over to second base. How he does it is his own business, it can be via a walk, a hit, a bunt, or just a ground ball hit behind Helton so he can get to second. Even if Tulo strikes out trying, it would only be one out and there would still be a runner at first. The one thing Tulo cannot do is hit a double play grounder to the left side of the diamond, which would leave the Rockies with two out and nobody on. What does he do? You guessed it, he hit a grounder to the left side, specifically to the third baseman, who started a 5-4-3 double play. The next batter, Brad Hawpe, hit a double that would probably have scored even old slow-footed Helton with the tying run.
The Rockies may not be good enough to overcome these kinds of lapses. There is hope, however, because the Phillies got frequent poor quality at bats from Jason Werth last year, and they still won the pennant and made it to the World Series. As a Baseball Observer, you really want to know the answers to questions that reporters never ask. They are, among others: Did the coaches talk to Tulowitzki before he went to bat to remind him how critical it was to move Helton over? Did he ignore them? Or did they trust he would do the right thing because he should have known what it was? Does Tulowitzki even realize what he did? We will never know.