Clutch Hits And Jimenez’s Pitching Result In Win

For the first time in five starts, Ubaldo Jimenez won. For the first time in eight games, the Rockies had more than three hits with runners in scoring position. And for the first time all season _ and this was their 26th game _ they won a game by more than seven runs.

Those two seven-run victories _ 9-2 at Arizona and 10-3 against the Phillies _ came on April 8 and April 10, back when the season was in its first week, no team had dug its way into a hole and it was too early to discern any trends, troubling or encouraging.

That’s why the Rockies’ 11-1 stomping of the Giants on Wednesday was more than their most lopsided win of the season. The victory came at the start of an eight-game homestand during which manager Clint Hurdle said, “the offense needs to get a rhythm and a rhyme to it, and I believe they will. But this is an excellent opportunity for us to do that.”

The Rockies are 11-15 and trail the 21-8 Dodgers by 6 ½ games. But a closer look at the Rockies’ ledger is both unusual and revealing.

“We’ve had 11 victories and in seven of them, we’ve scored nine runs or more,” Hurdle said. “So the ability to ignite is there, but the consistency is what we’re striving to be better with throughout the lineup and throughout games. So the gaps aren’t as big where we’re scoring a lot and we aren’t scoring”

Big hits with runners in scoring position were becoming an extinct species for the Rockies this season. There was Chris Iannetta‘s game-winning grand slam in the seventh inning Monday at San Diego, a one-out hit that carried the Rockies to a 9-6 victory.
And other than that hit, there was….

The Rockies played small ball to score a run in the third against Randy Johnson, the rally consisting of two walks, a sacrifice and Dexter Fowler‘s sacrifice fly. In the fifth, Matt Murton and Yorvit Torrealba opened the inning with home runs, giving the Rockies a 3-0 lead.

It was the sixth inning, along with Jimenez’s seven superb innings, which finished Johnson’s quest for career win No. 298, ended his five-game winning streak against the Rockies _ he’s 19-8 against them lifetime, having beaten them more than any other team _ and which included three consecutive two-out clutch hits.

The rally began with Ryan Spilborgh’s walk, followed by a double by Todd Helton, who homered on a 14-pitch at-bat in the seventh and went 3-for-4 while raising his average to .360 and extending his hitting streak to nine games (18-for-34).

The Rockies caught a break when Spilborghs scampered back to third base on a Garrett Atkins ground ball that third baseman Pedro Sandoval fielded. Had Sandoval not begun to quibble with third base umpire C.B. Bucknor and had the presence of mind to throw to first he likely would have gotten an out with the slow-footed Atkins running.

Spilborghs managed to get picked off by catcher Bengie Molina, the sort of rally killing gaffes that have plagued the Rockies all season. But after a run scored when Murton grounded into a fielder’s choice to Sandoval, Torrealba singled, Clint Barmes doubled and, yes, Jimenez singled with two out to give the Rockies a 7-0 lead.

Jimenez’s RBI was his first in 100 at-bats in the big leagues. It came on the first pitch from Osiris Matos, who relieved Johnson, and came after a batting tip from Fowler.

Watching Matos warm up and mindful there was a runner on second base, Jimenez nonetheless incredulously asked Fowler, “Do you think he’ll throw me a slider?” Fowler told Jimenez to look for a first-pitch fastball, which Matos threw and Jimenez whacked over the head of second baseman Emmanuel Burriss to help his own cause.

Asked whether he was more proud of his pitching or hitting, Jimenez, who also singled in the fifth and sacrificed in the third, said, “I stay with pitching.”

Fowler drove in the final run with a two-out single in the eighth after pinch hitter Seth Smith tripled. The run was inconsequential, but the single was the Rockies’ fourth hit with a runner in scoring position. In their first 25 games, the Rockies had more than four hits with runners in scoring position in just three games _ on April 10, April 21 and April 27.

By the time Smith scored, Jimenez’s 103-pitch night was long since over. He got eight outs on ground balls, issued his only walk in the seventh when he also hit a batter after the Rockies’ long sixth and took the mound in the eighth, departing after yielding a single and double to the first batters he faced.

Jimenez, whose four-game losing streak was tied with Milwaukee’s Manny Parra (he also won Wednesday) for the longest active losing streak in the National League, said he did a much better job of staying back in his delivery, which resulted in sharp fastball command.

“Piggybacking off the last four innings on the road in the last start,” Hurdle said, referring actually to a span Friday at San Francisco when Jimenez allowed two singles and one run, “we’re starting to see the form and the sequences we saw in the second half of last season. The fastball percentage and useage spiked. It was about 70 percent fastballs, to both sides of the plate. (His) secondary pitches he put in play and he had command of.”

Jimenez gave the Rockies their eighth quality start in the past 10 games. The win improved the Rockies’ record at Coors Field to 5-5. They have scored at least seven runs in those five wins and at least 10 runs in four of them. On Thursday, the Rockies will go for a sweep of the two-game series and send Jason Marquis to the mound.

He has started four of the Rockies’ 13 day games, going 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA in those outings. Another win and the Rockies might rightfully feel the wind’s at their back in an important homestand with the Marlins and Astros headed to town.

“We’re just happy to be home for a long period of time finally,” Hurdle said. “We’ve been vagabonds here. We haven’t done things with consistency like we’d like to. We’ve dug ourself a little bit of a hole. This is an opportunity to unpack our bags, put our foot down at home, get some rhythm to our game.”

The homestand began with the most lopsided victory of the season after the Rockies arrived home at 3 a.m. Wednesday morning from San Diego. After a month when the Rockies’ play often has defied reason, Hurdle offered a tentative explanation for the sequence of events.

“Sometimes the travel can take a little anxiety out of you, maybe,” he said. “Just come out and play.”