Rockies' De La Rosa stakes his claim
Win makes case for rotation spot in 2009 season
By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News
Published September 25, 2008 at 10:57 p.m.
Photo by Jeff Chiu © Associated Press
The Colorado Rockies' Jorge De La Rosa, left, tags out San Francisco's Bengie Molina at home as Molina tried to score on De La Rosa's wild pitch in the second inning Thursday night in San Francisco.
* Moment: After Giants catcher Bengie Molina led off the second with a single, he advanced to third on back-to-back pitches that went for a passed ball and wild pitch. He then had a chance to score a run and tie the score 1-1 when a Jorge De La Rosa pitch got by catcher Chris Iannetta. But Iannetta hustled after the ball and De La Rosa got to the plate quickly enough to take the throw from Iannetta and tag out Molina. The Giants had only one other runner get past first base before the eighth.
* Player: De La Rosa earned his fourth win in five decisions, working seven innings and allowing three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. It was his third straight winning start against the Giants, who have scored two runs in 20 innings of those three games.
* Stat: 10 wins for De La Rosa, giving the Rockies three pitchers with 10 wins or more for the first time since 2003 when Darren Oliver won 13, Jason Jennings 12 and Shawn Chacon 11. In addition to De La Rosa with 10 wins, Aaron Cook has 16 and Ubaldo Jimenez has 12 with a start remaining in Arizona on Sunday.
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When the Rockies look ahead to 2009, the starting rotation, which was a major failing this season, has the makings of being a strength.
Along with Aaron Cook emerging as an All-Star this year and Ubaldo Jimenez evolving into a dominant right-hander, the Rockies are confident a healthy Jeff Francis can rebound from his struggles of this season, while an in-season gamble on left-hander Jorge De La Rosa appears to have paid off to give them four starters they can count on.
And that's before they explore the trade market, dangling the bats of third baseman Garrett Atkins and outfielder Matt Holliday in exchange for strong arms during the offseason.
De La Rosa added another piece of evidence to his claim for a rotation spot in a 3-1 victory against the Giants on Thursday night that allowed the Rockies to finish only their third sweep of a road series this season. They also swept three-game visits to Washington from Aug. 15-17 and Cincinnati from July 25-27.
The sweep allowed the Rockies to clinch third place in the National League West, which, combined with last year's NL pennant, marked the second time in 11 years they have finished above fourth place.
The Rockies flew to Phoenix after the game and will finish the season with a three-game series against the Diamondbacks, who were eliminated from the NL West race with their loss at St. Louis on Thursday afternoon.
"We did a lot of good little things, which is something that will be non-negotiation for next year, something we have to do every day," manager Clint Hurdle said. "We have to focus on execution and that will allow us to do the things it takes to win."
De La Rosa has his focus. He worked seven shutout innings, giving up only three hits in equaling the longest effort of his major league career, and also delivered a run-scoring single in the fifth.
Brian Fuentes worked the ninth for his 30th save in 32 opportunities since regaining the closer's role in late April.
Second baseman Clint Barmes continued to make his claim for an everyday spot in next year's lineup with his career-best 11th home run to lead off the seventh,the second home run in two days for Barmes, who went 5-for-9 with five RBI in the three-game visit to San Francisco.
Acquired from Kansas City when early-season rotation plans failed, De La Rosa initially struggled with the same inconsistency that had troubled him in during time in the Arizona, Boston, Milwaukee and Kansas City organizations.
With the Rockies ready to see if limited time out of the bullpen might allow them to make use of De La Rosa's live arm after he gave up seven runs and retired only five batters in Florida on July 30, De La Rosa was given a reprieve. The Rockies needed a spot starter in early August against Washington, and he pitched his way back into the starting plans.
De La Rosa has gone 5-2 in nine starts since getting the rotation reprieve. He has seven quality starts in those nine games, having worked seven innings three times, including two seven-inning scoreless efforts this month.
"His tempo, everything he does, has picked up," Hurdle said. "He's so much more confident. Before, it was, 'I hope I can get out of the inning.' Now it is, 'I know I can get out of this inning.' "
Not that there were many innings to get out of for De La Rosa, who left after seven innings because of a groin problem that he aggravated running the bases.
Only twice in his seven innings did the Giants get a runner past first base. Bengie Molina doubled with one out in the fourth, but De La Rosa struck out Scott McClain and Aaron Rowand.
In the second, Molina singled, and wound up on third thanks to a passed ball and wild pitch but was thrown out trying to score when another De La Rose pitch got past catcher Chris Iannetta.
"We caught a break," Hurdle said.
Barmes didn't catch many breaks. The first three times he faced Barry Zito, he unloaded on pitches that the outfielders hauled in. He finally avoided that with the home run in the seventh to give Barmes what Hurdle called "the best 1-for-4 I've seen."
But then, there was a lot of good for the Rockies in the success they enjoyed in San Francisco.
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September 26, 2008
9:22 a.m.
Suggest removal
den2mke writes:
Not to throw water on the fire, but isn't this what De La Rosa does--tease folks with short stints of success, invariably, returning to an unreliable arm with command issues? Isn't this how he's stayed in the league this long?
I'm just sayin', before we go penciling this guy in as a solid contributor in a powerful Rockies rotation that goes 4 deep, maybe we should let him prove he's capable of not returning to past form. And, while we're at it, is everyone else as seemingly confident as the Rockies that Francis will return to form? Margin of error for guys who throw his style of game is really small and, not saying it won't happen, but I wouldn't bet on it...
September 26, 2008
1:41 p.m.
Suggest removal
fuzzyjim writes:
Amen to that. Isn't this kinda what we heard after pitchers got hot late last year? How many of them showed up in a big way this year?
Still, let's hope this time it sticks (as should Fuentes, but according to the scribes, that won't happent).