Fans of the Colorado Rockies haven't had a whole lot to get excited during their ballclub's league worst 4-16 month of May. However, when those rare moments have occurred, you can safely bet it was something produced by the bat of Carlos Gonzalez or the golden glove of shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.
On Tuesday night, it was the latter.
Tulowitzki's siganture defensive play has always been the incredibly graceful backhand and jump-throw combo from deep in the hole at short. But over the years he's also proven to be just as graceful as his idol Derek Jeter at flagging down balls ticketed for center field. After chasing them down, he often punctuates the play with a standard pirouette and an accurate throw.
On this Tulotastic play, however, Tulowitzki had to combine elements from both, using the pirouette and jump-throw together, to retire Miami's Bryan Petersen and create one of the smoothest defensive gems we've seen in 2012.
That was the good.
Unfortunately, in typical Rockies fashion during their ugly stretch of baseball, the buzz wore off quickly.On Tulowitzki's next routine chance two innings later, the two-time gold glover sailed the ball over first baseman Todd Helton's head for his eighth error of the season (are committing only six in 2011). It was an error that ultimately led to the deciding run in the Marlins 7-6 victory.
And to make matters worse for Tulowitzki, he came to bat in the ninth inning with the tying run 90 feet away and only one out. He promptly popped out to his counterpart Jose Reyes.
Needless to say, Tulowitzki is going to need more of the spectacular — and less of the game-changing errors and unproductive outs — if he plans on living up to the advertised "Mr. Everything" tag, or helping the Rockies recreate the magic of 2007 and 2009.
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