NL West

A clear sign that your bullpen is pitching well is when, with two outs in the ninth inning with no one on base and two outs, the closer is summoned from the bullpen, just to get some work.

At the beginning of June, the Colorado Rockies were in the basement of the NL West, a comfortable place for them, sitting at 20 and 29, 13.5 games out of first.

At the end of June, the Rockies were only 7.5 games back of first, and only 1.5 games out of the NL wild card.

Many things were positive for the Rockies in the month, so let's take a look into some specific numbers that helped Colorado climb the mountain in the standings.

A.J Hinch was the President of Player Developement, before he was hired as head coach of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bob Melvin lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to thier first divison title in five years when he was hired, before he was fired by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Many people were puzzled by why this happened, wondering why this would help the falling Arizona Diamondbacks record. Look at AJ Hinchs Record with the Diamondbacks compared to Bob Mevins this season.

As the San Francisco Giants try to determine whether they are going to buy or sell at the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline, right fielder Nate Schierholtz is beginning to prove that he is a legitimate major leaguer.

We always heard that Schierholtz could play, but because of a variety of things—reliance on older players or the lack of regular playing time in the majors—he hasn't seen any real opportunity to show he could hang with the big boys.

Don't get me wrong, I like the direction the Giants are taking.

I like the fact that GM Brian Sabean has finally wised up and has stayed away from his usual dumb tactics.

Overspending on players and filling position needs with aging veterans past their prime seems to be a thing of the past.

Now, Sabean is giving shots to the young guys, the up-and-comers who were bred in the Giants farm system. It's a nice thing to see. It's nice to see players succeed for the Giants that come from our own organization, and not from some other team in the league.

The series trend of low-scoring games continued on Wednesday afternoon in the rubber match between the Los Angeles Dodgers (50-29) and Colorado Rockies (41-37).

The Dodgers were unable to give Clayton Kershaw any run support, but still became the first team in the Majors to reach 50 wins.

Rafael Furcal singled home the lone run of the game in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Dodgers a 1-0 win.

Kershaw hurled five innings of one-hit ball without allowing a run, but left the game in a scoreless tie.

On paper the Rockies just lost a series with the Dodgers after a 1-0 pitchers duel where Jason Hammel came out on the wrong end.

However, after a winning road trip and a hard-fought series against the team with the best record in the Major Leagues, the Rockies should head back to Coors Field with a little more confidence.

After taking the last two games in Anaheim, the Los Angeles Dodgers headed out to Chicago to face the White Sox. Hiroki Kuroda dominated the South Siders in the first game, to give LA their third straight win.

Then the Sox bounced back to take the last two, giving the Dodgers their first series loss since they hosted the Angels in late May.

Since their inception in 1993, the Colorado Rockies have had several types of teams.

Forgive my ignorance on the matter, as I'm not well-versed in MLB rules and regulations, but why in the world is a suspended player allowed to play in the minor leagues before making their post-suspension major league debut?

Now obviously I understand it is in the rules that a suspended MLB player can play up to 10 games in the MiLB system, but still do not receive a paycheck of any kind. Paycheck or no paycheck, how can something like this be allowed?