Despite the Rockies' disappointing season, Hurdle isn't wired to go on an obscenity-laced tirade like the one former Mariners manager John McLaren went on just days before he was dismissed in mid-June.

"I don't think I'd ever give anybody the pleasure of seeing me meltdown," Hurdle said before Tuesday's game against the Padres. "That's not going to happen. You can't get me there."

The Rockies were riding an eight-game losing streak and sat a season-worst 19 games below .500 before beating the Padres, 4-0, on Tuesday. The Rockies have a chance to win their first series since they swept the Indians on June 17-19, and are still only nine games back of first place in the National League West.

But even if the Rockies never won again this season, Hurdle wasn't going to snap.

"I don't have that hardware," Hurdle said. "I'm not going to emotionally drip on you guys [the media] for no reason to try and have a reaction that other people want to see. That doesn't justify anything."

Hurdle said he's at a point in his life where he can look at baseball and realize it's just a game. Sure, it can make you laugh and cry, he said, but at the end of the night, he's not losing any sleep.

"I've gotten to a place where my self-esteem, self-confidence and self-worth is not tied to the win-loss record, good or bad," Hurdle said.

Instead, Hurdle focuses on finding a way to get his team better. He remains positive and expects his players to remain even-keeled regardless of what twists and turns the season brings.

"One of the things I challenge them is that when they walk in that door, I don't wanna know whether we've won or lost," he said. "We've lost way more than we've won, and they continue to show up and continue to believe that this going to be the day we're going to get something going. And that's what we need to do."

But patience is running thin among Rockies fans. An excited crowd of 43,284 -- the third-largest of the season -- showed up to see the Rockies on Monday, only to file out like zombies midway through the ninth inning, when the Rockies surrendered seven runs to the Padres. Cheers were replaced with boos, and the only claps were the ones dripping with sarcasm when the Rockies finally got out of the inning.

"They need to feel what they feel," Hurdle said. "I can't control that. But they also need to know there's not one player, coach, owner that shows up and says, 'What can I do to screw this thing up today?' And I think that's a point they miss."

Pitching matchup
COL: RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (2-8, 4.71 ERA)
Jimenez will have that rare feeling of being happy to get back to Coors Field, where he held the Mets to two hits in eight innings in his last start there, on June 21. Between then and now, Jimenez had an awful outing in Detroit, giving up four runs and throwing 104 pitches in just four innings. Jimenez had none of his secondary pitches until his final inning in the game.

SD: LHP Randy Wolf (5-7, 4.13 ERA)
Wolf ran into command issues almost from the start of his last outing on Friday against the Mariners. Wolf allowed six of the first 11 batters to reach base, as he compiled five walks in 3 1/3 innings. Wolf needed 50 pitches to get through the first two innings alone. He has now walked nine batters in his last two starts and hasn't won since June 11. His ERA has climbed from 3.83 on June 11 to 4.13. He'll face the Rockies for the first time since April 15, when he allowed one hit over seven innings with nine strikeouts in earning his first victory with the Padres.

Tidbits
Aaron Cook pitched all nine innings in Monday's 4-0 win over San Diego. He is the first Rockies pitcher to toss a complete-game shutout this season, and also the first since Jeff Francis shut out the Giants on Aug. 29, 2007. ... With the win, Cook improves to 11-5 and joins Shawn Chacon (2003) as the only Rockies to win 11 games before the All-Star break. ... Matt Holliday recorded his 10th stolen base Monday. It marks his fourth straight season with at least 10 stolen bases. ... Willy Taveras stolen his 37th and 38th bases in the fifth inning Monday, but left the game with a sore left quadriceps. He's listed as day-to-day. ... Kip Wells received the loss in his rehab outing at Triple-A Colorado Springs after allowing 12 runs -- five earned -- on 11 hits in 2 2/3 innings against Tacoma. He walked three, struck out two and allowed one home run. Wells is recovering from a blood clot in his pitching hand.

Tickets
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On the Internet
 MLB.TV
 Gameday Audio
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•  Official game notes

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On radio
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Up next
• Thursday: Rockies (Jeff Francis, 3-7, 5.67) vs. Marlins (Andrew Miller, 5-7, 5.05), 6:05 p.m. MT
• Friday: Rockies (Greg Reynolds, 2-6, 5.75) vs. Marlins (Scott Olsen, 4-4, 3.47), 6:05 p.m. MT
• Saturday: Rockies (Jorge De La Rosa, 2-4, 6.70) vs. Marlins (Ryan Tucker, 2-2, 6.84), 6:05 p.m. MT