Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

KRIEGER: Defying odds is Fogg's game

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 1, 2007 at midnight

Text size  

More Colorado Rockies

More stories »

Matt Holliday looked up at the ceiling in mock helplessness.

"I can't believe we have to rely on Josh Fogg," he said of the 30-year-old clubhouse prankster who gets the call tonight against Padres ace Jake Peavy in the first one-game playoff for the postseason in either team's history.

This is standard fare between Fogg and Holliday, co-authors of the Troy Tulowitzki 3,000 hits tote board, as it is between Fogg and most of his Rockies teammates.

When I mentioned that no one outside the Rocks clubhouse would give Colorado the pitching advantage tonight, Fogg smiled.

"I've gotten that all year," he said. "Go ask Tulo. We've got no chance. He tells me all the time, 'No way you can beat (Brad) Penny. No way you can beat (Derek) Lowe.' He's always messing around with me. But that's part of the game. If you go out there and make pitches, you can beat anybody any day."

And Fogg has done that with remarkable frequency, particularly in the second half of the season, considering his middling overall numbers (10-9, 4.79).

"He's faced (Curt) Schilling, he's faced (Roger) Clemens," Rocks pitching coach Bob Apodaca said. "Fortunately, it's not against Peavy. He has to face those other eight guys. Obviously, we're going into this game knowing that runs may be at a premium, and we're going to have to make every opportunity count. But I think this whole clubhouse has confidence in Josh.

"Yeah, he's that little guy who's trying to push that engine up the hill. He's the underdog. But this guy has guts. And he just seems to rise to these types of occasions, David and Goliath-type matchups. It's what drives him."

In fact, Fogg played David to Penny's Goliath just last week as the Rocks rolled through the West Coast trip they had to sweep to have any chance to reach tonight's playoff. Penny, the Dodgers ace, was good, but Fogg was better, pitching 6 2/3 shutout innings as the Rocks won 2-0.

"We call him the dragon slayer," Holliday said. "He's been beating aces all year long."

The truth is that Fogg personifies the Rocks going into tonight's game. For all the experts who will now explain why they belong here, respect for the Rocks - locally and nationally - was approximately equal to respect for Fogg for most of the season.

He began as the Rocks' fifth starter and slowly moved up the rotation by default as first Rodrigo Lopez, then Jason Hirsh and finally Aaron Cook went out for the year with injuries. When I asked him last week in L.A. if there was more pressure being No. 2 (or 3, or whatever he is now), he laughed, which is his most common reaction to questions from the wretches.

"I can only win one every five days," he said. "If guys got hurt and I was asked to pitch three out of five days, then maybe I'd feel a little more pressure, but it's still my job to go out there once every fifth day. If I win, I win. If I lose, I lose. You can't control any more than that. You go out there and make pitches and see what happens."

Other than his competitiveness and his teammates' loyalty - Fogg may be the most popular player in the clubhouse - the other advantage he brings to tonight's start is the trajectory of his season.

"Starting off 1-5 wasn't the way I planned it, but that's why they play 162," he said. "You go out there and you have a chance to redeem yourself over the next five months. I didn't get down after I was 1-5, I just went out there and kept competing and battled back, and I managed to get over .500 last start, so hopefully I get a couple games over .500 (today)."

Somebody asked if he's pitched in a game of this magnitude before, which brought another grin.

"I mean, realistically, I've been in Pittsburgh for four years and I was here last year," he said with a comic's timing. "I don't think Little League's going to compare to this.

"There's probably a handful of people in the world that have pitched in a game that's this magnitude. I don't think anybody in here has played in that kind of game. I would say no. The answer to that is a definite no."

You look at Fogg's season and there have been some seriously ugly outings, although not lately. He gave up eight runs in three innings against Pittsburgh in August, seven in 4 2/33 against Houston in June and eight in three against these Padres, back in April.

On the other hand, he gave up one run in five innings against the Pods in a 4-2 win Sept. 9, beating Chris Young, and two in 6 1/3 on April 7, when he got no decision.

"I don't know that I've ever played with somebody that I'd rather play behind," right fielder Brad Hawpe said. "He's a guy that nobody talks about. He goes out and competes."

The odds won't favor the Rocks in this pitching matchup, but then, the odds haven't favored them all year. The odds certainly didn't favor them two days ago, trailing San Diego by two with two to play, as various doubters, including this one, pointed out.

They've been chasing the impossible all year. If somebody has to hold the slingshot tonight as they chase it once more, it might as well be their journeyman dragon slayer.