Shutouts at Coors

At Coors Field tonight for the second game of the Rockies/A's three game set. Last night the Rockies got a homerun and three RBIs from Matt Holliday en route to a 7-0 win. Tonight is going well too as it is now 6-0 in the top of 7th. A's starter Estaban Loaiza got hit pretty hard and Rockies starter Jason Jennings has somehow managed to avoid giving up hits and keep putting up zeroes despite struggling with his control. In the top of the 7th he's thrown 107 pitches, 47 of them balls. But some things never change and once again Clint Hurdle elected to bunt with a runner on first and nobody out in the bottom of the first in a scoreless game. He also bunted in the second with runners on first and second and one out with Jennings at the plate - who is a very good hitting pitcher.

As I wrote about in my column on BP two weeks ago, Coors Field has played as almost a neutral park this year and I'll have more to say in this week's installment including some interesting fly ball distance and weather data. But interestingly, last night's shutout was the 6th of the season at Coors which matches the previous record of 6 set in 1997. Thus far the Rox have recorded 3 and the visitors have recorded 3. 2003 was the only other year in which there were as many as four shutouts here. To give some perspective Comerica Park, Minute Maid Park, and Safeco Field have all seen 7 shutouts this season and Petco Park has seen 6.

Update: Tonight's game ended in a 6-0 victory for the Rockies with the A's tallying just one hit (Jason Kendall hit a single on a soft fly to right to leadoff the game). So that makes it 7 shutouts at Coors this season. It was also the first one-hitter in club history and the third time the Rockies have thrown back to back shutouts, the others being in of April 2001 at San Diego and in April/May of 2002 vs. Pittsburgh.