Series Preview: Colorado Rockies

The Brendan Donnellyless Pirates start a road trip in Denver today against the 51-48 Colorado Rockies. Steven Jackson and Wil Ledesma have been recalled to join the bullpen for the trip.

The Rockies are in fourth place and are no doubt hoping to begin a run of winning baseball against the league's worst road team. Colorado's offense is scoring the third most runs in the league despite a non-career year by Todd Helton (.246/.336/.310). Carlos Gonzalez (.307/.336/.5080 leads the team with 62 RBI and has more homers (17) than walks (16). Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (.306/.375/.502) returns from injury and will bat cleanup tonight.

Colorado Rockies - Tuesday 8:40, Wednesday 8:40, Thursday 3:10
Tonight, Zach Duke (4-9, 5.22) gets the ball for the Pirates against Jorge de la Rosa (3-2, 5.65). Duke used to be good at home, bad on the road; this year he's been good on Opening Day and bad on all other days. The Rockies' promotion for this game is $1 hot dog coupons for the first 10,000 fans. Really? That merits a star on the schedule? No wonder the Rockies have lost six games in a row. My pick is the Pirates.

Wednesday, Ross Ohlendorf (1-8, 4.39) faces Aaron Cook (4-6, 4.78). Ohlendorf has been quite good lately and should have more wins, which is something I've probably typed more than once on this site. Well, his record will be a stunningly great 2-8 after this game. My pick is the Pirates.

What is with these start times? I guess it's a different culture out west what with stuff starting 10 or 40 minutes after the hour. Thursday afternoon, All-Star starter Ubaldo Jimenez (15-2, 2.75) will be completely overmatched against Paul Maholm (6-8, 4.13). In a game which might be over in two hours, my pick is the Pirates.