Give yourself a hand

The crowd that is. Brewers' fans started chanting, "Let's go CC," for CC Sabathia even before the newest Brewer had made it to the mound to throw his first pitch. When Sabathia headed out of the dugout for the first inning, the crowd cheered, the first of several standing ovations for the left-hander.

That's nasty

Sabathia unleashed a 97 mph, eye-level fastball for a ball in Ryan Spilborghs' first-inning at-bat and then sent him down swinging on the very next pitch -- a knee-level, 82 mph offspeed pitch for the final out.

A good athlete, too

Sabathia, 6-foot-7 and 290 pounds, demonstrated some basic fielding skills. He was quick off the mound on bunt attempts. Plus, he snared Jayson Nix's liner back to the box and doubled pinch-runner and former Brewer Scott Podsednik at third in the Rockies' sixth.

... THREE DOWN

Just tag him

Rickie Weeks had a chance to erase what eventually went as an error on shortstop J.J. Hardy but failed to use the ball to tag Spilborghs at second base after Spilborghs over slid the base on a possible force play. Hardy double-clutched on the throw, but Weeks held the ball in his hand while looking for the out call.

A tough night

Spilborghs, a former Madison Mallard, saw his night end on Yorvit Torrealba's bases-loaded double in the sixth. Spilborghs was on first but clutched his left side as he rounded second. He stopped at third but could have scored to make it 4-4. He was replaced by Podsednik.

A balky move

Rockies pitcher Matt Herges made a basic pickoff mistake in the sixth when he failed to come off the rubber and then failed to throw to first base with Corey Hart on base. Herges, who gave up three runs in the Brewers' seventh, was charged with a balk.