Recap: Rangers 8, Rockies 4
Turning point: Chad Tracy, the son of Rockies bench coach, Jim Tracy, hit a grand slam off Jhoulys Chacin in the seventh after the Rockies scored once in the top of that inning to tie the game at 4.
Big day: Catcher Paul Phillips, the only Rockies player with more than one hit, went 2-for-3 with an RBI on his first homer of the spring.
Bad day: Chacin, likely to be sent to the minors in the next round of cuts at the start of the week, gave up five hits and five runs in 2 1/3 innings with four walks, one intentional, and one strikeout. Chacin also yielded two doubles, one to pinch hitter Andruw Jones in the seventh.
FYI: Starter Jorge De La Rosa allowed six hits and three runs in four innings. But De La Rosa struck out five, didn’t walk anyone and the Rangers’ first run was set up when a high pop up fell between shortstop Omar Quintanilla and left fielder Seth Smith in the second . . . Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki was scratched due to tightness in his lower back . . . Matt Murton and Joe Koshansky each hit their second homers of the spring.
Is De La Rosa still looking good to open the year in the major league rotation?
The answer to your question, Ryan, is yes. He didn’t walk anyone today, which is encouraging. His velocity was good and at times so was his breaking stuff. With De La Rosa, it’s all about keeping his poise, maintaining his focus and not trying to do more than he’s capable of doing. Those were his problems earlier in the spring when he had back-to-back poor starts, but since then he has been more consistent.
That was Chad Tracy’s first cactus league at bat and he hit a grand slam. I wonder if Ron Washington put him in the game because his dad was there? Bet Jim was proud.
Ava, from the small world department. Did you knwo that Chad was recruited by Sonny Lubick and committed to play football at CSU initially, but then decided he wanted to pursue the baseball career so he and his father scrambled at the late date to find a school where Chad could play baseball. He did have plenty of schools that had initial interest in him as a baseball player but their scholarships were filled by the time Chad decided to play.
Tracy, thanks for that info. I’m glad he decided to go the baseball route. Also, I later read that Jon Daniels asked Ron Washington to play Chad Tracy as a courtesy to his father Jim. What a classy thing to do. Glad it worked out, Chad helped the Rangers to a win.