Young Guns

Just getting set to score my last game of the season for MLB.com on a cool and breezy day in Denver where the Rockies will host the Padres. With last night's 5-2 win, the Padres moved to 76-75 and remained 5 games in front of the Giants in the western division.

Last night rookie Mike Esposito made his major league debut for the Rockies and pitched 5 decent innings giving up 7 hits and 3 runs. He was pretty aggressive in the strike zone I thought although he ended up walking 3. Jake Peavy was very sharp and although the Rockies weren't that far behind most of the game, it just didn't look they would have a chance.

That makes it 19 different rookies who have played for the Rox this season which ties the Dodgers. That is the Rockies franchise record.

Overall, the Rockies have had by far the most games played by rookies this season:

Colorado      869
Atlanta       676
Dodgers       607
Kansas City   499
San Francisco 451

Of course the Dodgers, Braves, and Giants weren't exactly planning to have to rely on rookies as much as the Rockies were but of course we know how well the Braves rookies have played overall with Jeff Francouer leading the way.

The most interesting play of last night's game was when rookie Corey Sullivan chose to slide into the catcher Ramon Hernandez who was actually behind the plate trying to field a throw in the first inning when trying to score on a Todd Helton double, instead of taking a more direct route and using a hook slide or a head first slide using his hand. It was bizarre and Sullivan was called out since he never actually reached the plate. That turned out to be the Rockies best chance to get to Peavy who then shut them down until the 8th.