The Rockies ended their miserable road trip on an up note, taking the last two of three with the Dodgers and getting major league-level starting pitching in both of them. Jeff Francis's breakout on Tuesday couldn't have been predicted but Aaron Cook has been almost untouchable all season. Cook's 8-3 (.727) on a 22-38 (.367) team. I know won-loss records aren't the best indicator of a pitcher's performance, but Cook has earned each and every one of those wins. He's been an oasis in the desert for pitching-starved Rockies fans. If he gets anywhere near 20 wins on this crummy team he should win the Cy Young, Johan Santana be damned.

Yorvit Torrealba got three games for shoving Matt Kemp in the face in retaliation for Kemp's pissy shove of his own (four games). There was a time when stuff like this got one game for the instigator and a fine for the other guy. And not so long before that this sort of behavior wasn't given special notice by the league at all, so long as it wasn't repeated too often.

The Rockies next play the Brewers at Coors Field. Colorado can handle the Brewers. They have problems of their own. This seems like kind of a busy season for teams with problems of their own, doesn't it? Even some of the good teams have internal feuds. There's a high number of teams expected to contend who are bombing. Angry manager face is becoming a nightly "BTN" staple. The Tigers, the Mariners, the Indians, the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Mets... probably all of the teams except the Cubs and Tampa. And the Cubs have the Alfonso Soriano issue to iron out. Lot of franchises wishing they could reach for the reset button this year. It's little consolation for Rockies fans, who are watching a full-fledged disaster unfold, but... well, it's something to write about.

The Rockies have the evening off tonight, which is appropriate, because isn't it all about Lakers-Celtics? My loyalties lie with the team in the Irish green, but having watched the playoffs pretty closely over the last four months there's no arguing that Los Angeles is the better team. Several Boston players who have been wortheless or absent in the postseason thus far would have to wake up and contribute in addition to Pierce and Garnett dominating in order for the series to return to Boston for Games 6 and 7. I don't think that will happen, whereas the Lakers can absorb a so-so series from Odom or Gasol. Kobe is so amped up right now that he could score 50 every game if he really set his mind to it, and as a lot of analysts have mentioned there's so much time off between games that Bryant can play monster minutes without getting much less rest than he would in the regular season. Lakers in 5.