Sox lose tight duel with Rocks

Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger

-- A pitchers duel has usually gone Boston's way this season when Lester's taken the mound, but the Sox ran into a force to be reckoned with on Tuesday as they met the Rockies for the first time in 2010 and quickly found this young team is stacked in the pitching category, falling 2-1 in Denver.

**SPOILER ALERT: In fact I would put a heavy wager on the Rocks beating the Phils in the playoffs to meet the chosen winner of the AL East in the World Series this year. Can anybody say rematch?**

Jhoulys Chacin was the man on the mound Tuesday for the Rocks, hurling 6-2/3 innings of shutout baseball. Things should be interesting Wednesday as the Sox's league-leading bats faceoff against the near perfect Ubaldo Jimenez with a 1.15 ERA.

The Sox had a couple of opportunities with the bases loaded, one with Ortiz and another with V-Mart, both leading to easy rally-killing ground-outs.

The aging all-star veteran Todd Helton had the crucial, go-ahead RBI single that made all the difference.

Wednesday's Matchup: John Lackey (8-3, 4.53 ERA) vs Ubaldo Jimenez (13-1, 1.15 ERA)

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