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Rockies fall flat in home finale

Poor pitching, fielding result in 13-4 loss to Arizona

By Jack Etkin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 21, 2008 at 4:17 p.m.

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Right fielder Brad Hawpe tries to catch a flyball during the Rockies' final home game Sunday, which was won 13-4 by Arizona.

Photo by Brian Lehmann / The Rocky

Right fielder Brad Hawpe tries to catch a flyball during the Rockies' final home game Sunday, which was won 13-4 by Arizona.

The key . . .

* Moment: Greg Reynolds gave up hits to the first four batters he faced on his way to yielding five runs and six hits in the first inning as the Diamondbacks shoved the Rockies into a deep, early hole. Arizona sent 10 batters to the plate in what became a 33-pitch inning for Reynolds and scored on center fielder Seth Smith's error, Adam Dunn's two-run double, Mark Reynolds' sacrifice fly and a single by Dan Haren.

* Player: Chris Young scored four runs, drove in four and went 3-for-5. He led off the second with his 20th home run, after floating a single to short center field in the first that led to the Diamondbacks' first run when center fielder Smith dropped the ball, allowing Stephen Drew, who had flared a double into short left field, to score. Young cleared the bases with a triple in the fifth to put Arizona comfortably ahead 11-3.

* Stat: 35.10 ERA in two starts this month for Greg Reynolds, who has yielded 16 hits and 13 runs in 3 1/3 innings in those games. In 62 innings this season, he has allowed 113 baserunners, an average of 16.4 per nine innings, on 83 hits, including 14 home runs, 26 walks and four batters hit by a pitch.

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The Rockies ended the home portion of their disappointing season with a last stumble Sunday, drama vanishing early in a humiliating one-sided defeat.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, still with designs on winning the National League West, pounced on struggling rookie Greg Reynolds for five runs in the first inning. They drove him from the game in the second and went on to flail the Rockies 13-4.

"It was one of those games that I definitely didn't expect to have for our last game of the season at home," Clint Barmes said. "It's pretty disappointing. The support we've got from all the fans has been great. . . . You want to go out and try and at least get that last one."

Losing the rubber game of the three-game series left the 71-85 Rockies with a 43-38 home record, their fewest wins at Coors Field since 2005 (40-41) and a long fall from their 2007 heights, when they went 51-31 at home.

The Diamondbacks have lorded over the Rockies this season, winning 12 of 15 games between the teams and seven of nine at Coors Field. They pounded out a season- high 19 hits and built a 7-0 lead before Garrett Atkins' three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth gave the Rockies hope that was ever so brief.

Arizona quickly added four runs in the fifth against Jason Hirsh, aided by shortstop Troy Tulowitzki's error on a potential double-play grounder hit by Dan Haren, who won his 16th game.

Before this lopsided loss and the Rockies' ceremonial walk around the field that followed it, manager Clint Hurdle, when asked about 2009, said, "There's a lot of things out there that show sparks, that give me a reason to believe that this thing can rebound."

In passing, he mentioned notable progress by the likes of Ubaldo Jimenez, Chris Iannetta, Ian Stewart, Taylor Buchholz, Jorge De La Rosa, Aaron Cook and Jason Grilli. Hurdle touched on the way Tulo witzki and Jeff Francis rebounded from injuries and Manuel Corpas found his bearings after losing his job as closer.

And then the Rockies, 2008 by no means behind them, went out and made three errors and threw 207 pitches in a pratfall that began with Reynolds. He retired just four of the 13 batters he faced.

Reynolds, the second player taken overall in the 2006 draft, couldn't get out of the third inning one week ago against San Diego. He fared even worse against the Diamondbacks, who are 2 1/2 games behind Los Angeles with seven games to play.

Reynolds ran into some immediate misfortune, his own making in part because he wasn't able to throw a first-pitch strike. Stephen Drew flared a double into short left field on a 1-0 pitch to begin the game, three Rockies unsuccessfully converging on the ball.

Chris Young, who went 3-for-5 with four runs scored and four RBI, dumped a single into short center field. Drew advanced to third on the hit and scored when center fielder Seth Smith picked up the ball but dropped it.

Reynolds fell behind 1-0 to Conor Jackson, who grounded a single up the middle, and Jackson and Young scored when Adam Dunn rocketed a 2-0 pitch into the gap in right-center for a double.

"His command has not been his best friend out there," Hurdle said, "and at the major leagues, it's very difficult to work effective innings when you're not working ahead in counts, when you don't have good fastball command."

That was never an issue for Reynolds before this season or when he went back to Triple-A Colorado Springs after an 11-start stay with the Rockies that ended July 4.

But after getting tagged for nine hits and seven runs in two-plus innings against San Diego, Reynolds was strafed for seven hits and six runs in 1 1/3 innings by Arizona.

"It was more of the same, just like the last outing," Reynolds said. "I kind of got away from the game plan, crept up in the zone and got hurt."

Reynolds said he thought his problems were more a matter of focus than anything physical and that he's dwelling too much on a bad outcome and letting it affect him against the next hitter.

"It's not letting the results of at- bats that have just happened," Reynolds said. "Don't let them take you out of your game plan and don't try to overthrow. Sometimes I could feel myself out there, I'll give up a big hit or a hit, and I'll figure I have to throw it harder.

"That's never the case. You got to stay with the game plan and keep the ball down and sometimes I got out of that."

Comments

  • September 21, 2008

    5:20 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    craig7078 writes:

    Who's the genius who took Reynolds ahead of Lincicum in the draft or Longoria. What a bunch of losers running this franchise. Casey Weathers was a stupid high draft pick. Some things never change. Hurdle the loser will be back for season number 8 next year. What a joke.

  • September 21, 2008

    11:29 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    RBDenver writes:

    Nothing changes if nothing changes. Hurdle has no clue on how to manage pitchers. If he is allowed to come back next year as the manager (term used loosely) that will tell me all I want to about the committment of the ownership group here.

  • September 22, 2008

    7:12 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    fjv1026 writes:

    I'm no baseball expert and I sure as heck don't get paid to give my opinion but could it be Greg Reynolds is ill-suited to be a starting pitcher??? You would think Clint the Great would recognize this. If Clint Hurdle is the manager of the Rockies next year, I will REFUSE to be a fan.

  • September 22, 2008

    12:13 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    fastnloose writes:

    7 bad finishes,1 good one, I think I'm seeing a pattern here.I hope the powers that be are seeing the same pattern. Time to pull the plug on the field managers.

  • September 22, 2008

    12:31 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    arvada_mark writes:

    Yeah craig, the Lincicum thing still puzzles me. From what I understand, the Rox thought he was too short & that his arm wouldn't hold up over the long season. Wrong again. This was one of the most painful seasons as a Rockies fan I have gone through. So much expectations, & so little production. It actually looked like the Brothers Monfort were going to change their ways by signing Tulo long term before the season. That appears to have been a 1 time thing, & more of a slap in the face to loyal fans than anything. They teased us with that contract, knowing full well they weren't willing to pay market price for Holliday or the best pitcher they've ever had in B-Fuent. The Dodgers went & made some moves with Torre & Manny, now they are where we want to be. The D-backs went out & got Harren & what's his name, the big slugger (Dunn, I think). The Rox, well, we let our clubhouse leader in Josh Fogg go (we could have had him the whole year for what we spent to get Livan here for 2 months) & we let the one guy who could have spelled Willy T. in the leadoff spot go because, well, "We have young talent coming up at 2nd." Dumb, dumb, dumb! Next year, no B-Fuent, no Holliday, maybe no GA, & they want to trade Willy T. I got money that says even though we lose those guys, we fail to fill those spots with proven veterans. In fact, I would bet that whoever the guys we get to replace Willy T. (Dexter F. I'm sure)& Holliday will have close to zero MLB experience, or are some sort of whatever Giles brother we had here or Steve Finley type on the last leg of his career. The upper management thinks like it's fans do in the fact that we all HOPE that whatever they are doing up there works sometime in our life. The difference being that we are fans, they are the so-called professionals.

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