Game 94: Rockies 5 Pirates 3

Well, this is unfortunate. Someone appears to have stolen the 2007 version of Ian Snell and replaced him with the 2006 version. You remember that incarnation of Ian, the one with a ton of promise that also happened to serve up homers to left-handed batters like they were tootsie rolls and he was in a parade. He's now given up five homers in two starts since the break and four of those five were hit by guys standing on the left side of the plate. Todd Helton and Brad Hawpe were the culprits today, turning a 1-1 game into a 5-1 game with a pair of two-run jacks. Those outweighed the solo shots hit later in the game by Freddy and LaRoche and thus, we lost.

It was too bad, too. Snell was locked in early on with four strikeouts in a row to end the first and second innings. From there, Rajai Davis misplayed a Troy Tulowitzki ball into a double and Snell gave up a hit to pitcher Jeff Francis to tie the game up and things went all downhill from there. Six losses in six games to start the second half. Kind of reminds you of the way last season started, doesn't it? Glad to see things have changed so much.