Early trouble sends Cook, Rockies to another loss
The Colorado Rockies are a season-worst five games below .500 after Aaron Cook once again struggled in the early innings and the Atlanta Braves cruised to a 9-1 victory.
Cook, who is 0-4 with a 5.82 ERA in six starts _ five of them Rockies losses _ was trailing 2-0 before he got an out. Jordan Schafer led off the first with a triple, and scored on Alex Gonzalez’s single. Brian McCann followed with a run-scoring double. McCann moved to third on the first of two ground ball outs and scored on Eric Hinske’s single which put the Rockies in a quick 3-0 hole.
Cook left after facing two batters in the sixth and got 13 of his 15 outs on ground balls. But the Braves did plenty of damage when they got the ball in the air against Cook. McCann led off the third with a single, and Chipper Jones lined a 2-1 sinker that ran off the plate but stayed up down the left field line for a two-run homer.
Cook left after giving up singles to Hinske and Dan Uggla to start the sixth. Rex Brothers relieved Cook and walked Nate McLouth to load the bases. A run scored when pinch hitter Jason Heyward grounded into a double play, and Schafer, who went 4-for-5, singled home a run to make the score 7-1.
Struggling Rafael Betancourt pitched the eighth. He gave up a leadoff single to Hinske and a two-run homer to Uggla.
The Rockies were unable to get a timely hit against starter Jair Jurrjens, who is 12-3 with a 1.87 ERA, that might have pulled them closer. They had runners on first and third with two out in the fourth, and Seth Smith flied out. After scoring in the fifth on Ian Stewart‘s one-out double high off the wall in right-center followed by Matt Pagnozzi‘s single, Cook singled but Charlie Blackmon flied out and Jonathan Herrera grounded into a fielder’s choice.
With runners on first and second and no out in the sixth, Todd Helton broke for third and Ty Wigginton for second. Catcher McCann went for the trailing runner and threw Wigginton out. The Rockies had runners at first and third with two out, but Stewart grounded out.
Jurrjens left after the sixth, and the Rockies loaded the bases with two out against Scott Linebrink but Wigginton struck out. Between the fourth and seventh innings, the Rockies left nine runners on base and went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Other highlights:
_ Ubaldo Jimenez, Jhoulys Chacin and Aaron Cook, the three starters against the Braves, have pitched a combined total of 15 1/3 innings. Counting the 3 2/3 innings Jason Hammel lasted Sunday against the Royals, the Rockies starters are 0-4, 9.00 (19 innings, 19 earned runs) in the past four games.
_ The Rockies have lost three straight games to the Braves and six straight games on the road dating back to June 25. The Rockies have lost four straight and six of their past eight.
_ The Rockies are 6-21 at Turner Field since the start of 2003.
_ Cook last won on Sept. 8 and last won on the road on Sept. 3 at San Diego. He has pitched six innings twice in six starts. Cook made his first two starts this year against the Padres _ the team against whom he has had the most success. He’s 0-1, 3.97 against the Padres and 0-4, 6.75 against everyone else, namely the Tigers, Yankees, White Sox and Braves.
_ In the three losses to the Braves, the Rockies have had two extra-base hits, both doubles, and have gone 4-for-22 with runners in scoring position.
_ Rafael Betancourt has allowed six homers in 34 1/3 innings and has been scored upon in eight of his past 12 appearances.
_ Brothers allowed the two runners he inherited from Cook with no out in the sixth to score. Only two of Brothers’ first 10 inherited runners had scored.
What’s new? And some posters on here think we’re being overly negative?
Please.
I know I’m going to get a lot of grief for this, but….
I saw very little of tonight’s game, but I did see the Stewart at bat in the 5th. And I liked what I saw. Working with Lachemann in Colo Springs seems to have done well. It’s still a work in progress, but it could be good. Very Very good in fact.
If the Rocks are to have any hope of a playoff run this year, Stewart is the key. Tulo, CarGo, Todd, and Smith are hitting well. The Rocks need one more consistent batter with power. Stewart is the only one in the organization that can do it for them. And his defense is top notch.
I’ll take Stewart over Wiggy in the lineup every day. Get Wiggy back to why we brought him in, spell Todd, pinch hit, etc.
Oh, yeah, another rotation pitcher too.
Time to sell ‘em off and think about 2012
I think the surprise of this season is how few of the younger players have stepped up and improved. Aside from Chacin (who may have now peaked for the year), the entire new guys part of the roster has been a disappointment. Stewart, Fowler are outright busts, probably Nelson too. Reynolds, Mortensen, the dear departed F. Morales, all average at best. Nicasio, can’t tell yet but he’s been rushed. Brothers is not yet ready. Blackmon, can’t tell yet, but again probably not really ready. What for the past few years has seemed like an organization teeming with young talent is suddenly looking pretty flaccid.
As for the vets, other than Helton, a lot of disappoinments. Tulo is too streaky for his experience level, and prone to doing the same bad things over and over. Smith is tied up with LHP. Wiggy cant produce when theres a shred of pressure. Lopez, etc, well where are they now? Ubaldo, whats the reality, early 2010 or ever since? Cook is simply no longer a starter, and who knows if he could drop into a relief role, Betancourt has withered, Belisle and Lindstrom waver on a regular basis, Street is always one pitch from disaster.
There’s just too many holes, and now it seems, not a lot of ability to patch them from within or find replacements from elsewhere. I’m not seeing much to “sell” either, whether we want to or not.
Only our pitching staff can get Dan uggla out of a serious season long slump. And if you remember we were also able to get Gordon Beckham out of a slump just a few days ago. Hate that as a fan but love it as a fantasy owner Haha. Anyways the pitching has become a serious problem, cook is done and Im sure alot of us, other than o dumb, saw this coming years ago. Even if we get tulo and cargo back, and if my man Stewart steps up, it won’t matter. I only trust jiminez and chacin at this point. Nicasio is improving but the other spots are almost guaranteed losses. We need help. I don’t want to see us trade for a mediocre pitcher. We need someone ligit, both for this year and for insurance on jorge next year. How we acquire this, i have no idea.
Nice analysis, RocketMan. You are right on target. This is not a very good team.
Ed, RMH, was it really only a few months ago at ST that the world seemed right? Pitchers hit their spots, hitters squared up on pretty good pitches, and good baseball was the order of the day for our Rox.
‘Tis low we have sunk, these few months.
Two seminal events: Not closing the deal for Michael Young, and the loss of DLR.
Yuk.
We’re 10.5 games out the WC but only 7 behind in the division (pending SF/SD). Look at the “bright” side. /sarc
Didn’t bother to watch tonight. Still a Rox fan…but guitars and chile rellenos were too much to resist.
Guess I didn’t miss much, but at least 26K showed at Turner Field to watch. Baseball lives!
I was thinking the same thing robba – looking great and good start in April. Suddenly a downward spiral. I think the problems started when Stewart got hurt on the first play of ST and he couldn’t get on track.
I called it three days ago that we should skip Atlanta. Not to brag about calling it, but to illustrate how low my confidence in the team has gone.
I think we’ve reached the crossroad now; should we stay the course with the team or change up. the team by discarding the unwanted cards and drawing new cards. Obvious answer to me is to draw new cards.
I start with the pitching staff
And discard Cook and call up Christian Freidrich or Greg Reynolds. Attempt to sell Betancourt. When healthy bring back Daley. Ubaldo is starting to return to the Ubaldo of early 2010. Let the young pitchers pitch the rest of the year to be more prepared for next season.
Offense is adequate except for one bat that we counted on – Stewart. I say just run with him the rest of the year so we can get the answer if he’s the man at 3B or not for next year so we know what to do going into ST.
All on all, I’m just asking for a little shake up and get answers for needs going into the winter. Not just stay status quo and keep on losing.
Yeah RMH, the Stewart collision was huge, but they seemed to get over it. Resiliancy? It’s no longer there.
I’m off to watch Gibson in 1964, 1967, and (sob) 1968.
It is a miracle we are only that far back in the division. Listen… I am a die hard rockies fan. My college buddies and I watched all the games in the spring, now I just moved in with my girlfriend and she has to put up with the daily screams because of bases loaded strikeouts and starting pitchers who cannot keep the ball down with their 88 mph heater…not good.
As big of a fan that I am, I just don’t know what to say right now. I know we aren’t the most talented group of ballplayers, but in the past it seemed like the team played good fundamental ball, grew a pair and manned up when times got tough. We have some good talent though: Todd is having a great year, cargos slup ended and he looked great before he got hurt, tulo has been tulo… trying to do too much all the time with his god given talent. Once he stops pushing so much, I really think things will get better. Ubaldo has looked better lately, now if he could get some run support and more confidence in his pitches.
The supporting cast and the youngsters have been a disappointment minus chacin(up until his last few starts) and wiggy (as long as there are no RISP).
No more being passive, play to win not to lose. I want to be buyers in a few weeks, not sellers so the team better figure it out. Come on guys, we know they aren’t the yanks or the phillies talent wise, but they are better then this. Which leads me to believe their heads are in their asses. Remove them and let’s win some baseball!!
I’m so disapointed I’ve given up watching past the 4/5th,or even bothering to post the obvious.
Just wanted to congratulate Felipe Paulino who held the White Sox to three runs on nine hits over six innings Tuesday to pick up his first win of 2011. Of course, if he’d been pitching for the Rox, we’d only been able to come up with two runs and he would have lost.
On a brighter note, being 2011 and an odd year, the baseball gods are due to check into the Rox dugout in about a month, sprinkle their magical purple pixie dust all around and bring smiles back to all our faces. In the meantime, we should all be thankful that we’re not Dodger fans.
Stewart gets one hit and already he is an ASG starter and MVP front runner. Lol.
Another Cook stinker. He’s only getting $9,250,000 this year for that garbage. Luckily for the Rockies, the Padres lost too. Otherwise the Rox would be a mere .5 games ahead of San Diego. Bad news is they lost to the Gnats, putting them 7.5 games outa first. Can you beleive it?
Cudos to Rocketman on a superb summation of the rockies situation.
DOD’s gotta go.
Very disappointed. Haven’t posted in a few days because I agree with all everyone else has said and I can’t come up with anything original.
I do not think we should be sellers. If we sell Street who is the closer? We sure don’t have one ready to take his place. Wiggy is signed to a inexpensive 2 year contract. The people we want to sell, no one wants to buy. Do not fall into the trap of changing cards and giving up on young players right now. Other teams will want our Nicasio’s, Blackmon’s, Chacin’s, Wheeler’s etc., not our Stewart’s, Fowlers, Cook’s, etc.
I’m not sure anyone can definitively say what happened to this team from the 3rd week in April until now. There have been injuries, some early some current, but good teams overcome that. There just seems to be no fire in them. They are over pressing instead of relying on baseball instincts. There is no consistency. I guess what I am alluding to is that the manager/coaches may have lost these guys. I think that is a stretch for an explanation also, but the only one I can lean on right now.
I do not hold out much hope at this point. Maybe the rest and clear their heads time for a few days will help.
Added kudos to Rocketman…spot on.
His evaluation hit virtually every Rockie fault.
Robba and RMH…yes it was only 4 months ago where we quaffed a few at the Tavern Grille and I(being a know-it-all), postulated that the Rox would win the West by at least 3 games. I also believe I proferred that prediction to Jasper and a few others during my stint in Scottsdale.
I now offer an excuse for my overly optimistic view. As some of you know, I’m an old fart, so I am falling back on the time-honored tradition of calling in…”the senior moment.”
Just what the hell I was thinking when the springtime Rox pitched and pounded with regularity escapes me. I don’t do drugs(anymore)so I can’t use that as a haze-induced prognostication.
That’s enough of the “big words” in my rant.
Will the Rox recover and make the majority of us here turn on the oven in preparation for a feast of baked crow?
My late, great dad, always believed he would live to see the Cubs in a World Series. Never happened.
I wonder if I…
F Morales is better than average at best. He has other issues causing his problems. He has phenomenal raw talent with awesome velocity amnd movement. If he could only figure out how to use it.
Funny, I’ve been worried about the starting pitching for 2 seasons and spanked by several on here for thinking that. Seemed like most thought the starters were fine and would get the job done.
They just don’t have the horses to get the job done. Pagnozzi, Blacmon, Lopez, Nelson, Stewart, Cook, Lewis and Martin. Good job DOD!
btw… Jair Jurjenns makes about $3,500,000 this year. about a third of what dod pays cook
Guys,
I wish I did not agree with all of you, unfortunately, I do. I am “older” also and I keep hoping I am just “misremembering” this season. Blessing their hearts did not do any good maybe we should all just go to the dugout and kick some as–es, perhaps that might wake up one or two. I would be happy with little league baseball see the ball, meet the ball,throw the ball over the plate on the edges, good enough. Thanks for allowing me the rant, I usually just sit back and say “yeah” and “that is the truth” because each and everyone of you at one time or another said EXACTLY what I was thinking. One other thing, I am not even comfortable saying wait until next year.
Rocky,
Who is Lewis and Martin?
Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin?