Rockies humbled by Phillies

In City of Brotherly Love, Colorado torched by 15 runs

By Jack Etkin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 08:25 p.m., May 26, 2008
Updated 09:14 a.m., May 27, 2008

Photo by Tom Mihalek © Associated Press

Rockies starting pitcher Jorge De La Rosa struggled during Monday's 20-5 loss to the Phillies De La Rosa allowed six runs in 3 1/3 innings as he took the loss.

The last time the Rockies were here, it was October to start the division series. They were riding a memorable wave, winning 14 of their final 15 regular-season games, including a play-in with San Diego.

That streak began the day Seth Smith was activated in mid-September. Before making his third straight start Monday, Smith said, "This is a good time to get a real feeling of what big-league baseball's all about. When I was up last year, it was kind of surreal, something that doesn't happen all the time."

Surreal, bizarre, extraordinary - those are all apt descriptions for what happened to the Rockies on their latest visit to Citizens Bank Park. A shoddy start by Jorge De La Rosa, who might have pitched his way out of the rotation, and some horrific relief pitching by Jason Grilli, Josh Newman and Matt Herges resulted in the Rockies' most lopsided loss of the season, as they were thrashed 20-5 by the Philadelphia Phillies.

The 20 runs were a season high in the majors this year and the most scored by the Phillies since July 3, 1999, when they pummeled the Chicago Cubs 21-8 at Veterans Stadium.

The last time the Rockies yielded 20 runs was June 19, 2002, in a 20-10 loss at Coors Field to the New York Yankees. And despite their historically poor record on the road, the Rockies, who are in their 16th season, set a franchise record by surrendering 20 runs on the road. They gave up 17 on June 24, 1993, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco and Sept. 28, 2002, at Arizona.

"Their offensive club," manager Clint Hurdle said, "(and) our lack of execution off the mound was combustible."

The Rockies actually staked De La Rosa to a three-run lead in the first, when Willy Taveras started the game with a single, Jamie Moyer, 45, issued his only walk, to Todd Helton with one out, and Ryan Spilborghs hit a three-run home run.

But De La Rosa, who needed 30 pitches to wade through the first, walked the first two batters he faced and gave up a three-run homer to Chase Utley, who set a career high with six RBI.

"It's disappointing that you have a 3-0 lead and you're not able to have a shutdown inning," Hurdle said. "It is one of the things you always strive for. You get another lead and you don't have a shutdown inning (the third, when the Rockies took a 4-3 lead and the Phillies scored in the bottom of the inning). And, obviously, things got away from us in the fourth inning and they just unraveled on us after that."

De La Rosa began that inning by giving up three consecutive doubles and a sacrifice by the ageless Moyer, who won his 235th career game. Moyer took the mound 0-4 against the Rockies and has now earned at least one victory against every major league team.

With Glendon Rusch having allowed one run and five hits in 11 innings in two starts for Triple-A Colorado Springs, the second on Sunday, he's a candidate to replace De La Rosa in the rotation on Saturday at Chicago.

Hurdle said he would assess the situation with general manager Dan O'Dowd today when they speak by phone but said of De La Rosa, "It wasn't a step forward."

De La Rosa said the Phillies' potent lineup or the bandbox that is Citizens Bank Park had nothing to do with his performance.

"If you make good pitches, you can get outs," he said. "My control wasn't good. When you make a lot of mistakes, you pay for it."

After De La Rosa departed, the Phillies pounced on Grilli and Newman while scoring six runs in the fourth and sixth innings. And Herges, pitching the ninth to get work, couldn't complete the inning and gave up four runs and six hits and retired one of the eight batters he faced. Manuel Corpas bailed out Herges and joined Alberto Arias as the only Rockies relievers not scored upon, although Arias allowed two inherited runners to score when Ryan Howard greeted him with a two-run single.

Meanwhile, Moyer, who worked a season-high seven innings for the second time in 11 starts, retired 14 of the final 16 batters he faced, beginning with Jeff Baker's sacrifice fly in the third. Moyer notched a season-high seven strikeouts, including six of eight batters, beginning with Taveras, to end the fourth.

"He was able to slow down the pace of the game," Hurdle said. "And our guy sped it up and everybody else afterward, with the exception of Arias and Corpas."

Key moment: Jorge De La Rosa gave up three straight doubles to begin a six-run fourth as the Phillies sent 11 men to the plate against him and Jason Grilli. The Rockies were trailing 6-4 when Grilli entered the game with one out and a runner on third, and he surrendered three hits and two walks before the inning ended.

Key player: Chase Utley, who set his career high with six RBI, and Chris Coste each hit three-run home runs. But Jamie Moyer won his 235th game, putting him one behind Whitey Ford and Clark Griffith, who are tied for 56th all time. Beginning with Jeff Baker's sacrifice fly, which netted the Rockies' fourth and final run off him, Moyer retired 13 of 14 batters.

Key stat: Four times this season Rockies opponents have scored in double figures. Los Angeles did it the other three times, winning 11-3 on April 26 at Dodger Stadium, and 11-6 on May 2 and 12-7 on May 3 at Coors Field.

ETC.

Third baseman Garrett Atkins, who was scratched Saturday because of a stiff neck, took groundballs in batting practice and might return to the lineup tonight. . . . Ryan Speier (right shoulder contusion) will throw one inning in a simulated game today and then join low Single-A Asheville on Wednesday at Rome, Ga., to begin a rehabilitation assignment. . . . Jason Hirsh (strained right shoulder) threw three innings in an extended spring training game, and Luis Vizcaino (strained right shoulder) threw one. Both are scheduled to begin rehabilitation assignments with Triple-A Colorado Springs this weekend. . . . Micah Bowie (strained left forearm) will throw about 25 pitches today in his third bullpen session and will mix in sliders and split-fingered pitches after only throwing fastballs the first two times. . . . Brad Hawpe said his strained right hamstring no longer is causing him discomfort.

BAD TIMING

Matt Holliday (strained left hamstring) went on the disabled list Sunday with a 10-game hitting streak, and he had thrived recently at Citizens Bank Park.

He's 9-for-23 (.391) with six home runs and 11 RBI in his past six games here - four in mid-September and two in the National League Division Series.

NUMBERS GAME

9 players on the disabled list for the Rockies, tying them with Florida for second in the majors in that dubious category, one behind San Diego.

UNHAPPY NEWS

Yorvit Torrealba received a call Sunday night from a friend in Venezuela, informing him that fellow Venezuelan Geremi Gonzalez, 33, a former major league pitcher, was killed Sunday when he was struck by lightning at a beach. Gonzalez won 11 games as a rookie for the Chicago Cubs before suffering arm injuries, and pitched for five teams between 1997-2006.

"I don't really know him that well, because we never really have a chance to play on the same team," Torrealba said. "It's really sad. You can't give any explanation. I thought he was in Japan pitching, and he's in Venezuela having fun at the beach, I guess, and look what happens. It's crazy."

• May 26, 2008

  8:38 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  wiscbum writes:

  Not a shocker HERE.. DeLaRosa has to go. I'd rather have Bucholz start or even Todd Helton. Geez, DeLaRosa is GARBAGE and obviously should be cut.
  This last start tells you everything... he sucks.

  Go with a 4 person rotation if you have too. No more Jorge!

• May 26, 2008

  11:17 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Chadley25 writes:

  Jorge may have given up six runs, but the relievers sure didn't fare any better, did they? Coughing up an additional 14 (!!!) runs, not over the course of a couple of weeks' worth of games, as you might hope, but in less than 5 innings. My head is still spinning.

  Nothing like an old-fashioned total beatdown to completely obliterate any lingering good feelings from Cook's brilliant complete game performance.

• May 27, 2008

  8:34 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  joeblow writes:

  Wow! That starting pitching for the Rockies is getting scarier. Thank goodness we've got a strong bullpen! If the bullpen can keep its ERA un 14 this season, we're still in this thing!

• May 27, 2008

  9:07 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  DeimosJB writes:

  Speaking of the Rotation, and given Francis' continued struggles, I think the Rotation's nickname should be changed from "Cook and Francis then take your chances" to "Cook, then don't look".