DENVER (AP) -Josh Fogg’s family will have to catch the biggest game of his career on television after his wife and toddler flew home to Florida last week.
He’s still expecting to have plenty of support.
“Hopefully, there’s 50,000 friends out there rooting for me,” said Fogg, who will start for Colorado on Monday night when the Rockies face the San Diego Padres in the first one-game playoff since 1999.
The teams tied for the wild card Sunday when Colorado beat Arizona 4-3 and Milwaukee routed the Padres 11-6.
NL Cy Young favorite Jake Peavy, who leads the major leagues with a 2.36 ERA and is second in wins with 19, will start for the Padres, who lost twice in Milwaukee over the weekend while the Rockies were beating the NL West champion Arizona Diamondbacks’ diluted lineup to force the tiebreaker.
The Rockies won 13 of 14 games down the stretch to put themselves in a position to contend for their first playoff spot since 1995. Their only loss was 4-2 to the D-Backs on Friday night that clinched a playoff spot for Arizona, which will play the Chicago Cubs in the divisional round.
Rookie Ubaldo Jimenez allowed one run on one hit over 6 1-3 innings Sunday, striking out a career-best 10 in what he called “the biggest win of my life.”
Fogg (10-9) is hoping to follow it up with the biggest win of his career.
The righty seems to thrive on going against the other team’s ace. He outdueled Arizona’s Brandon Webb in early September and showed off his stuff in interleague play by beating Boston’s Curt Schilling.
“We call him the ‘Dragon Slayer,”’ Rockies slugger Matt Holliday said. “He’s been beating aces all year long.”
Fogg, who went 1-1 with a 6.28 ERA in three starts against the Padres this season, isn’t counting on what he did against other aces to help him Monday night.
“Every game is different,” he said. “Those games are over with. Those games were months ago. Tomorrow is a completely different day.”
Peavy enters the game fully rested having last pitched on Sept. 26 when he beat San Francisco. He was hoping not to pitch until Game 1 of the divisional round.
“I didn’t want it to come down to this, but it has,” Peavy said. “It’s going to be fun – hey, we’re starting the playoffs with Game 7, you know? This is going to be fun.”
Peavy didn’t expect any lingering effects from the two losses to the Brewers that prevented them from winning the wild card over the weekend.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to get the spirits lifted and the attitude changed,” Peavy said.
Peavy is hoping for better luck in Denver than he had in Milwaukee, where he lost his money clip at a casino.
“I had way more money in that than I was gambling,” Peavy said. “So, hopefully, some of those cameras caught somebody picking it up.”
Peavy is 0-0 with 1.29 ERA in two starts against the Rockies this season.
Holliday, who takes a .340 batting average into the game and would have to go 0-for-5 to lose out to Atlanta’s Chipper Jones, is just 1-for-5 with two strikeouts off Peavy in 2007.
The Padres have a .369 batting average against Fogg this season, but the right-hander hasn’t shown the slightest hint of nerves.
It’s the same moxie that helped him overcome a bad start to the season.
“It started off rough. Starting off 1-5 wasn’t the way I planned it,” Fogg said. “But that’s why they play 162.”
Or in this case, 163.
—
AP Sports Writer Chris Jenkins in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
Add A Comment