Ramirez leaves Rockies ticked off
Torrealba twice thrown at by ex-batterymate in loss to Royals
By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News
Published June 24, 2008 at 9:02 p.m.
Photo by Orlin Wagner/Associated Press
Rockies manager Clint Hurdle talks with home plate umpire Paul Nauert following a call during the fourth inning Tuesday.
Moment: With the Royals leading 2-1, and Ross Gload on first in the fifth, Rockies first baseman Todd Helton threw errantly to first on a Tony Pena sacrifice bunt, and LHP Jorge De La Rosa then gave up back-to-back, run-scoring hits to David DeJesus and Mike Aviles.
Player: Royals RHP Zack Grienke did allow three runs in six innings, but he did not issue a walk and struck out 10, matching his career-best. Grienke has allowed four runs in 20 innings his last three starts. He is 3-0 in four starts against NL teams this season.
Stat: 2 crowds below 20,000 for the Rockies in Kansas City -- 12,260 on Monday and 19,169 on Tuesday -- the only crowds of fewer than 20,000 tickets sold for a Rockies game, home or road, this season.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Rockies have been looking for something to ignite their emotions.
Former teammate Ramon Ramirez might have provided a spark Tuesday night.
While Ramirez was finishing off the Royals’ 7-3 victory at Kauffman Stadium, he also fired up the Rockies dugout when he appeared to attempt to make good on what several Colorado players said was a pregame declaration he was going to hit catcher Yorvit Torrealba with a pitch.
Ramirez denied that assertion, pointing out that after an early Royals workout, he sought out Torrealba, who was standing in the visiting dugout, and the two had what observers confirmed was a pleasant conversation in which both players were smiling.
“Obviously, something was not so good,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.
There weren’t smiles in the ninth, when the Rockies were so incensed after two of the first three pitches Ramirez threw to Torrealba leading off the inning went behind the Rockies catcher that bench coach Jamie Quirk was in a shouting match with the umpires as the crew came off the field after the game.
“Maybe (Ramirez) lit a pilot light that we can’t seem to keep lit,” Hurdle said.
Stay tuned. The Rockies-Royals series concludes tonight. Having lost three in a row for the first time in a month, the Rockies will attempt to avoid being swept in a series for the first time since they lost four to the Cubs at Wrigley Field from May 29 to June 1.
The Royals already had done their damage, long before the ninth.
Left-hander Jorge De La Rosa, in his third start since being reinstated to the Rockies rotation, made his return to Kauffman Stadium, where he had pitched for the Royals the final two months of 2006 and all 2007, retired the first 10 batters he faced, striking out four.
He retired only four of the next 12, giving way to the Rockies bullpen after allowing four runs, only two earned, in 4 1/3 innings.
“He seemed to stop throwing his slider (in the fourth) and started using just the outer third (of the plate),” Hurdle said. “He was having success with the fastball in and that slider in on the hands.”
The Rockies offense, meanwhile, continued to struggle, coming up with a run in the fifth on Ryan Spilborghs’ two-out bloop single and two more in the sixth thanks to a leadoff home run by Matt Holliday and Brad Hawpe’s one-out double after Garrett Atkins’ single.
The Rockies only had one other inning that they got a runner in scoring position — the second, when Torrealba doubled with two out.
But then, this is a team that has scored only 329 runs in 78 games and is 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position during the current three-game losing streak. And the Rockies combined to strike out 14 times, including Royals starter Zack Greinke equaling his career-best 10 strikeouts in six innings.
“We are throwing body punches, but we have not been able to hit anybody enough to get them to drop their hands so we can hit them in the head and knock them out,” Hurdle said. “We’re not clicking in enough areas to create that big inning.”
Before losing two of three to the Mets last weekend, the Rockies had won five consecutive series and 10 of 14 games — a stretch of success that began with Torrealba and Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp causing the benches to clear when Kemp struck out, then shoved Torrealba, who was trying to pick up the baseball to tag him out.
Could Tuesday, three weeks to the day later, be the start of a sequel?
There was no clearing of the benches but there was plenty of emotion.
And those near the Rockies dugout said the complaints to the umpires stemmed from questions about why Ramirez wasn’t ejected after throwing behind Torrealba’s back with the first pitch of the ninth inning, then, after throwing a pitch over the left-handed batter’s box, Ramirez’s next pitch was behind Torrealba’s back.
“The umpires felt it wasn’t that obvious or they would have thrown him out,” Hurdle said. “They handled it the way they felt was appropriate.”
Said Ramirez: “The ball slipped out of my hand.”
He denied any premeditation, but the Rockies didn’t buy it.
Several players said Ramirez was upset that last season, when he was not pitching well, Torrealba had some stern words.
“You will have to ask him,” Torrealba said. “He acted (before the game) like everything was OK.”
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June 25, 2008
6:50 a.m.
Suggest removal
SwolOne writes:
0-4 from our clean-up hitter once again (with a throwing error on top of that). A pitching coach who can't settle a starter down. A baserunning blunder at 3rd base. It's the same thing every night. Welcome to Clintsanity.
June 25, 2008
10:14 a.m.
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milloy36 writes:
This team will set an all record for the worst winning percentage for a World Series team the next year. They didn't belong in the series last year anyway. Just got lucky against bad NL teams. Simple as that. Over and out.
June 25, 2008
11:07 a.m.
Suggest removal
TheDenverB writes:
actually, it's clear they belonged int he world series last year because there weren't any other teams who could have taken them down.
luck has nothing to do with it.
June 25, 2008
11:25 a.m.
Suggest removal
joered writes:
rox not quite right. almost make a key double play, almost not get thrown out trying to get an extra base, almost get a sac fly. no player or players to lead them by even the small example of hitting the ball, just making contact, with a runner on third instead of striking out as it seems does every batter, all season. certainly this team is not polished defensively, swinging the bat, running the bases, getting the job done. it's like they're either in perpetual spring training or infected with 'lose any way possible' syndrome.