Veteran reliever Mike Timlin ended his comeback attempt Friday when he was released by the Rockies after being told they had no opening for him at this time on the major-league roster.

Timlin, 43, preferred to go home to Castle Rock and be with his wife, Dawn, and two children _ Jake, 13, and Mykala, 9 next month _ rather than go on the road with Triple-A Colorado Springs when joining the Rockies bullpen wasn’t an option Friday. There were no hard feelings on either side, and Timlin’s departure from the Rockies organization was not performance related.

Reliever Ryan Speier was activated to take Timlin’s place on the Sky Sox’s roster. Speier had been sidelined with lower back spasms.

Timlin joined the Sky Sox on Aug. 5 after making two scoreless appearances at Rookie Casper. As he unpacked his Boston Red Sox equipment bag in the empty Sky Sox clubhouse _ the Sky Sox had a lengthy flight delay coming out of Reno at the end of a road trip that morning _ Timlin said he truly enjoyed being a dad and being home but wanted to try going out of the game on his own terms.

In a sense, he was able to do that.

Timlin went 4-4 with a 5.66 ERA in 47 games last year for the Red Sox and pitched a total of 1,058 games in the major leagues in a professional career that began in 1987.

With the Sky Sox, Timlin went 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA in four games, the last on Wednesday. The Sky Sox were off Thursday and on Friday began an eight-game road trip to New Orleans and Oklahoma City.

Timlin was aggressive and consistently threw strikes with a repertoire that included an 88-92 mph fastball, cutter and slider.

Before joining the Sky Sox, Timlin spent five days in Casper while making two appearances with the Rockies lowest-level farm club. Casper manager Tony Diaz asked Timlin if he wanted to address his players, and the veteran readily agreed.

“He told the fellows, ‘You got to have that want to make it, that want to win,’ ” Diaz said. “And he said, ‘That’s still here. I got that want.’ ”

When Timlin left he was given a gift by the Casper pitchers. He prefers to wear camouflage shirts under his uniform jersey and when he departed, the appreciative young pitchers gave him one made by Under Armour as a going-away gift.