NewsRockies handed first loss under Tracy
De La Rosa's brief outing, quiet bats spell defeat vs. Friars
By Cheng Sio / MLB.com
05/31/09 8:08 PM ET
DENVER -- Even after suffering his first loss, 5-2, as Rockies manager against the Padres at Coors Field in front of 30,223 on Sunday, Jim Tracy was a happy man. Sort of."We won the series," Tracy said. "That's a positive, and I always look at positives. Where we let ourselves down is we had an opportunity to sweep the series."
The Rockies dismissed Clint Hurdle as manager on Friday before the beginning of their three-game series against the Padres. Under Tracy, they won the first two games including an 8-7, come-from-behind thriller on Saturday. Tracy said in order for this team to climb out of the hole it dug for itself, it needs to continue to win series after series.
However, this series sweep wasn't meant to be, thanks to another poor outing from Rockies left-hander Jorge De La Rosa.
Coming into Sunday's contest, De La Rosa had given up 14 runs in seven innings in his past two outings. Before the game, Tracy said he wanted to see De La Rosa limit the damage whenever he got into trouble. That wasn't the case on Sunday.
With two on and two outs in the third inning, De La Rosa threw an 0-2 fastball that left-handed-hitting first baseman Adrian Gonzalez smacked for an opposite-field home run. It was Gonzalez's Major League-leading 20th home run.
Tracy said in that situation, De La Rosa had pitches to play with and could have used both sides of the plate.
"It wasn't the pitch we wanted in the 0-2 count, but it wasn't a bad pitch, either," catcher Yorvit Torrealba said.
In the fifth, De La Rosa walked Scott Hairston and Gonzalez with two outs. Then, he served an 0-2 slider to Kevin Kouzmanoff, who drilled it to left field for an RBI double. The situation could've been worse, but shortstop Troy Tulowitzki made a perfect relay throw to nail Gonzalez at home plate.
De La Rosa (0-6) pitched five innings and gave up four runs and six hits and walked three to earn the loss.
"Overall, I think he pitched better than the last outing," Torrealba said. "He's still learning. He's in that process. Obviously, he's going to learn from his mistakes. Hopefully, his next outing will be better and hopefully he won't have those mistakes. But he's only going to get better. He won't get worse, I guarantee you that."
While De La Rosa was dealing with his problems, so were the Rockies hitters against Padres starter Chad Gaudin. Gaudin (2-3) pitched a gem striking out a season-high nine while giving up two runs, one earned, on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings. Last month at Coors, he threw five scoreless in his first start of the season.
"Nothing is going to happen if the bat is sitting on your shoulder," Tracy said of the team's 10 strikeouts.
Trailing, 5-0, in the seventh, the Rockies tried to make it a ballgame. With runners on the corners and one out, Tulowitzki hit a fly ball that Hairston dropped, scoring Garrett Atkins. On the next pitch, Torrealba lined an RBI single to right, knocking out Gaudin.
Cheng Sio is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
