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Rockies' De La Rosa comes up big

Seven-inning effort, Stewart home run pivotal in victory

By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 5, 2008 at 9:21 p.m.

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The Rockies' Ian Stewart launches a two-run homer off Washington starter John Lannan in the seventh inning Tuesday night at Coors Field.

Photo by David Zalubowski © Associated Press

The Rockies' Ian Stewart launches a two-run homer off Washington starter John Lannan in the seventh inning Tuesday night at Coors Field.

The key . . .

* Moment: Ian Stewart showed he can handle left-handed pitchers. On the bench with left-hander John Lannan starting for Washington, Stewart got called on to pinch hit with two out and a runner on in the seventh and delivered a two-run home run on a 1-0 pitch. It was the first pinch-hit home run of his career. Stewart is 10-for-18 against left-handers this year.

* Player: Left-handed pitcher Jorge De La Rosa was pitching for a spot in the rotation and responded with his strongest effort of the season. De La Rosa went seven innings, allowing two runs. He had a no-decision, but it was his third strong effort in his past four starts. While he is 2-1 in those starts, he has allowed four runs in 192/3 innings of three of them.

* Stat: Two hits for the Rockies in the five-run eighth inning against three Nationals relief pitchers, who combined to walk four (two with the bases loaded) and hit two batters (one with the bases loaded).

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With the Rockies battling to stay alive in the National League West, left-hander Jorge De La Rosa made a case to stay in the rotation.

Then rookie Ian Stewart came off the bench to reinforce what he always claimed - he can hit a left-hander - giving the Rockies the momentum to rally for an 8-2 victory against the Washington Nationals at Coors Field on Tuesday night.

The Rockies' NL-leading 13th victory in 19 games since the All-Star break left them eight games back of NL West-leading Arizona but helped atone for the disappointment of a 9-4 loss in the opening game of a four-game series Monday night.

"The thing I like about this club, you are going to have nights where you don't play well, but from one night to the next, you can't tell what went on by the attitude in the dugout," manager Clint Hurdle said.

Heck, forget about Monday night. For the better part of Tuesday night, the Rockies were in a funk, thanks to Washington left-hander John Lannan and despite the strongest effort of the season for De La Rosa.

Lannan allowed the Rockies only one hit in the first five innings. They managed only two runners getting past first base the first six innings. Then, with two out in the seventh, Clint Barmes singled to center and Stewart unloaded the first pinch-hit homer of his career.

"That gave us the momentum that we capitalized on," shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said. "That gave us a breakthrough."

Stewart tied the score 2-2 by driving a 1-0 fastball deep into the right-field stands, providing an emotional lift that fueled a five-run eighth in which Brad Hawpe greeted Charlie Manning with a go-ahead, two-run single.

The Rockies added three more runs thanks to a pair of bases-loaded walks and a hit batter.

And the five-run rally came against a Nationals bullpen that came into the game with an NL-best 1.89 ERA since the All-Star break.

"Talk about a game flipping on a pitch," Hurdle said. "Lannan was pitching as good a game as I've seen for seven innings, except that one pitch. It enabled us to capture some momentum."

Give credit to De La Rosa, as well. On the day it was learned the Rockies were awarded a waiver claim on right-handed starter Livan Hernandez, pending Minnesota signing off on the deal, and Hurdle let it be known his patience was running out with the strong-armed but inconsistent De La Rosa, the left-hander answered the challenge.

He not only equaled a career best with a seven-inning effort, giving up two runs, but he avoided the emotional meltdowns that have haunted him at times.

"Before the game, I said we need a minimum five innings (from a starter) and a chance to win a game," Hurdle said. "He did both. He did not get rattled."

De La Rosa gave up a run in the second on back-to-back singles by Austin Kearns and Lastings Milledge and a Jesus Flores sacrifice fly.

In the fifth, he walked Ryan Langerhans to start the inning and eventually threw a wild pitch that allowed him to score.

But in the third, after hitting Willie Harris with a pitch with two out and walking Ryan Zimmerman, De La Rosa got Kearns to fly to center.

In the seventh, with runners on first and third and one out - and after De La Rosa was visibly upset on a safe call at third - he regrouped.

He got Emilio Bonifacio to hit a ball hard down the third-base line. Third baseman Barmes fielded the ball and tagged out Ronnie Belliard, who broke off third and hesitated instead of taking off for home.

Then Barmes made a strong throw to double up Bonifacio.

Then came the bottom of the seventh, when Hurdle, who had loaded the lineup against the left-handed Hannan with right-handed bats, had four left-handed hitters and backup catcher Yorvit Torrealba on the bench.

He went with the left-handed bat of Stewart, who is 10-for-18 against left-handers in the majors this year. And at Triple-A Colorado Springs, he had bigger numbers against left-handers than right-handers in terms of average (.316 to .294), on-base percentage (.389 to .365) and slugging percentage (.620 to .601).

"That's the biggest (home run) I've hit this year, based off the situation," Stewart said.

ringolsbyt@RockyMountainNews.com

Comments

  • August 5, 2008

    10:15 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    1somelikeithot writes:

    Great win. I have to say, I have never missed watching any of the Rockies games this season. But, tonite I went over to the MLB gameday and tuned in to the radio broadcast. The mute button wasn't enough, I just wanted to watch the game and not watch about the truck stuff. Was disappointed that someone actually would think that was more interesting than the game. Someone's dumb idea I suppose and I hope this is the end of it. I purchased the MLB TV package just so I could see the Rockies play since I live out of the area. Just show the GAMEs will ya. Go Rockies!

  • August 6, 2008

    1:04 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    RDenver writes:

    Great pitching by De La Rosa. Too bad there was no run support when he was in there. I went to the game and missed out on the 'truck stuff'. Maybe someone can explain what happened. Also, better hope the Backs start losing.

  • August 6, 2008

    5:18 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    nmbronco1 writes:

    I thought the "behind the scenes" look at the people behind the broadcasting of the Rockies games was kinda cool, although it did in some cases get to interfer with the game. It would good to see the Rockies bats explode again as we know they can. getting Jeff Francis back should help the rotation, and Livan Hernandez would be an upgrade from the other guys manning the 5th spot in the rotation.

  • August 6, 2008

    6:23 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    wilburM writes:

    If Stewart is hitting .555 vs. LH pitching... what the heck is he doing on the bench to start the game? Why choose last night to give the guy a day off?

    clueless.

  • August 6, 2008

    6:25 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    mrfxx writes:

    As someone who is a self-confessed "football first, hockey second, then baseball fan" - I hesitate to point this out - but wasn't it a 6 run 8th? I could have sworn I read that the final score was 8-2 - and if it was tied at the end of 7....but maybe I know less about baseball than I thought I did.

  • August 6, 2008

    11:51 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    blm69 writes:

    Nice to see pittsburgh giving it the old college try against the D-backs. We have nine games against the D-Backs and we will have to win at least 7 of them. Not going to get any help from anyone else.