You're killing me Smalls

Jesus Mary and Joseph. This NLCS is so frustrating. It's as if both teams have forgotten how to hit, and don't tell me they’ve had stellar pitching, because they haven’t. There have been a myriad of opportunities for both teams to take advantage of and they haven’t answered the call.

Both squads look indecisive at the plate. I don't care if you strikeout, but striking out looking is inappropriate, especially with runners in scoring position; I’m looking at you Chris Young and Mark Reynolds. The Rockies, who are supposedly winning this series are hitting .231 as a team and the Dbacks aren't much better at .248. Don't regurgitate that small ball propaganda to me about "all you need is timely hitting.” If you get runs in the first place, then you don’t need clutch hitting when the game is in dire straits. In the next round, the Rockies will need to strike early and strike often to win and even then I don’t guarantee it. I don’t think they can do it.

Seriously, these games are offensive futility at it's best. Every single hitter is fooled on every pitch. Even the pitch that Holliday hit out of the park was a bat flick that he barely managed to reach on the outside corner. The at-bat from Torrealba that won Game 3 was hideous. During the AB he flailed at a pair of 60-mph curveballs before he guessed correctly to hit the fastball. The only reason he hit the homerun was because he had decided to swing before Livan had come set; he guessed correctly, but that won't work again.

On the other side of the diamond, the Dbacks are getting worse and worse. Where they looked rusty and timid in the first two games, they now look unprepared and baffled. They have no approach at the plate, or any general idea of what the opposing pitcher is trying to do to them. What makes their floundering worse is the inability to change or adapt to their previous at-bats. Their mindset stays stagnant making the same mistakes and taking the same swings over and over again. You can't win this way. You have to change your approach as the situation dictates. A batter has to get smarter every single time they come to the plate.

Let me make this clear before the bandwagon gets out of control; If the Rockies play like this against the Indians or the Red Sox they will lose. The NLCS has exposed their offensive weaknesses. Mediocre pitching has, in essence, shut down both teams. What do you think will happen when they go up against guys that actually have a dominant pitch? Doug Davis, Livan Hernandez, Brandon Webb, Josh Fogg, Jeff Francis - these guys use trickery in the form of sinkers and cutters to induce contact and keep batters off-balance, and while they are good at it, it's nothing compared to truly overpowering pitches. If they have the same approach and the same at-bats against Carmona's splitter or Beckett's gas, they will look utterly lost and fail. And don’t think the Indians' or Red Sox's batters are going to take pitches, miss opportunities and let them hang around. The Rockies have to find some offense.

I'm bitter. The Rocks will sweep my boys tonight. I don't care what the score will be because neither team has played like they deserve it. All I have to say is the Rockies better start watching some film or start popping steroids because it's gonna be a show if they walk into Cleveland playing the same hodgepodge clown ball they’ve been throwing together thus far. I don’t see a confident strong ball club, I see a scared weak façade of a real champion. Welcome to Varsity Rockies, you better find an A-game.

- The Hokie