Looking Back (Oct. 1) | Rockies 9, Padres 8 (13)
After winning 13 of their last 14 regular-season games to force a tie with San Diego for the NL wild card lead, the Rockies earned the right to host a one-game showdown with the Padres at Coors Field Monday night.
Rockies starter Josh Fogg was chased after four innings, and Pads ace Jake Peavy was similiarly roughed up, pitching into the seventh but allowing six earned runs. Brian Giles tied the game 6-6 with an RBI double in the top of the eighth, and the game headed into extra innings, where it remained deadlocked into the 13th.
Left fielder Scott Hairston broke the game open in the 13th for the Padres, crushing a Jorge Julio offering to left-center for a two-run homer that put San Diego in front 8-6. That set the stage for Trevor Hoffman to ice the win in the bottom of the inning, giving the game's all-time saves leader a chance for redemption after his devastating blown save in Milwaukee two nights earlier.
But Hoffman imploded again, failing to retire a single batter. He allowed three straight extra-base hits to begin the inning, the last of which was an RBI triple from Matt Holliday that plated Troy Tulowitzki with the game's tying run. After Hoffman walked Todd Helton, Jamey Carroll floated a blooper to shallow right, just barely deep enough to plate Holliday for a game-winning sacrifice fly.
Looking Ahead (Oct. 6) | Football: Bowdoin At Tufts
After a pair of wins on the road against NESCAC cellar-dwellers Hamilton and Bates, the football team comes home this weekend - as does the rest of the Tufts community.
Homecoming Saturday brings the Jumbos' first game at Zimman Field in 2007, as they square off against the 1-1 Bowdoin Polar Bears, who have already turned heads around the NESCAC with a Week 1 win over the defending champion Williams Ephs.
The Polar Bears ride into Medford fresh off a 30-6 loss at Amherst, struggling to find consistency in their running game this season. After an 84-yard rushing effort led by 52 yards and two touchdowns from senior Jeff Smith against the Ephs, the Bears struggled mightily on the ground in Week 2, as the Lord Jeffs out-rushed them by an unheard-of 331-23 margin.
The Jumbos, however, come into Saturday's game as the third-best rushing team in the league. Junior Brad Ricketson and senior Chris Guild have both vaulted into the NESCAC's top eight rushers, as Ricketson picked up 111 yards and Guild added 79 against Bates last Saturday.
