Rockies lose second straight to Diamondbacks
Aaron Cook didn’t make it through the fifth. The Colorado Rockies made one bad play in the field, another on the bases and managed to get little output from 13 hits in a 9-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Chris Iannetta, Kevin Kouzmanoff and Carlos Gonzalez each had three hits. The Rockies other hit was a leadoff homer in the ninth by Dexter Fowler, his first homer since Oct. 3, the final day of the 2010 regular season. Fowler had gone 282 at-bats since that homer.
Cook lasted 4 1/3 innings and gave up six runs. The last three scored on Miguel Montero’s homer in the fifth that gave the Diamondbacks a 6-2 lead. Cook gave up three runs in the third when he walked Willie Bloomquist with one out to put runners on first and second. Gerardo Parra, who went 4-for-5, ended up with a two-run triple when center fielder Fowler let Parra’s hit in left-center go by him. Parra scored on a ground out by Justin Upton, who hit a two-run homer in the eighth off Matt Belisle.
The Rockies scored a run in the first on a two-out single by Todd Helton. But that hit came after Troy Tulowitzki, who went 0-for-5, swung at left-hander Wade Miley’s first pitch and popped out. Iannetta singled home a run in the fourth to cut Arizona’s lead to 3-2.
Miley bobbled Cook’s sacrifice to load the bases. But Fowler and Mark Ellis each flied out. After Montero’s homer put the Rockies into a four-run hole, they threatened in the sixth when Kouzmanoff and Iannetta singled with one out. Pinch hitter Eric Young Jr. flied to center, and Kouzmanoff was inexplicably doubled off second.
Helton led off the eighth with a double and scored on Kouzmanoff’s one-out single to make it 7-3. But Upton hit a long homer off the batter’s eye in the eighth, his 26th homer of the season.
Other highlights:
_ The Rockies have lost four of their past five games and are 13 games behind, matching their greatest distance this season from first place. They were also 13 games behind on Aug. 16.
_ Cook had a season-high six strikeouts. Montero’s homer was the eighth allowed by Cook in 85 innings overall in 15 starts. But he has yielded six homers in 33 1/3 innings in his past six starts. This was the second shortest of Cook’s 15 starts this season _ he went four innings Aug. 2 against the Phillies _ and the ninth time he has failed to pitch six innings.
_ Belisle has given up five home runs in 62 1/3 innings but hadn’t allowed a homer since June 10. Belisle has been scored upon in three of his past five games, allowing nine hits and six runs in 4 2/3 innings in that stretch.
_ Tulowitzki is hitting .115 (6-for-52) with one homer and six RBI in 13 games against the Diamondbacks this season and is 68-for-309 (.207) against them in 82 career games with 13 homers and 40 RBI. In 41 career games at Chase Field, Tulowitzki is 30-for-149 (.201) with six homers and 17 RBI. This season, Tulowizki is 4-for-32 (.125) at Chase Field with one homer and three RBI.
I hate it when baseball season has basically ended for my team. But, heck, bring on the kids. I’ll watch and/or listen. When the highlights section starts off with “Rox have lost 4 of their last 5″, and we’re now in 4th place, what else can you do?
As always, THANKS to Tracy, Steve, Jack, et al, for providing us access this place. Hope you can keep it going. Also, thanks(!) to Ed the Ump for bringing some reality to our rants and/or ignorance.
bye bye 2011 season
I’m watching less and less of more and more games, but I still read this site daily, as much for the comments as the write-ups. All great stuff. Don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed in a baseball season. Having grown up in Philly, I still like the Phils, but my love of the Rockies has made this one lousy season despite the great year in my home town. What an implosion.
Hey there is no shame losing to the best. I mean, that was Justin Verlander on the hill for the DBacks.
…What’s that you say??…
Bob in WV “I’m watching less and less of more and more games, but I still read this site daily, as much for the comments as the write-ups. All great stuff.”
I am doing the same thing and also read this site religiously every day.
Dave in Bayfield “I hate it when baseball season has basically ended for my team. But, heck, bring on the kids”.
That is what I’m waiting for. Load us up with some AA and AAA (Pacheco) players and lets watch the kids.
I tuned out when Dex and Ellis flied out (Dex on 1st pitch, Tulo did the same thing in 1st). If this team doesn’t want to play smart baseball, or does not have the ability, then it’s time to watch or read or do other things.
Still root for them, but this season has been fundamentally bad.
Another game that supports the proposition that this will be Cook’s last year as a Rockie. The bad games outnumber the good games for him. If only I could figure out who our five starting pitchers will be next April.
When nothing changes, then nothing changes. I would love for the Monforts to break their promise, and can Tracy and DOD. What a lousy baseball team. 1-4 already on this road trip. And that after winning 5 in a row to make us foolishly believe that maybe there was some magic to be had in September. The reality is, that as long as 40K a nite show up at Coors Field, then nothing of any real substance will change. I see another year of Tracy’s stupid, nonsensical lineup changes, running on contact into easy outs, massive numbers of runners stranded on base, swinging from the heels popups, Cook’s elevated sinker, the 3rd base offensive black hole, Huston Street’s lights on 9th inning nail biters, and that dumb purple dinosaur.
hopefully this will be my last rant of the year, now pass the pretzels
The stats shown last night about how well we are hitting proves that our main problem is and has been pitching. We have had bad luck for sure with DLR’s arm and the broken neck incident, not to mention the slump of Ubaldo. But honestly it has been way more than that. Our bullpen has been horrible and Street had been giving up the long ball like a lunch special. We couldn’t hit first 1/2 and were pitching OK. That flipped the 2nd 1/2 but the pitching is historically bad.
I too feel Tracy has managed pretty horribly this whole season (his penchant for sitting someone during a streak is so so so frustrating, not to mention his not playing Smith every day), and the Tulo/Cargo slump was also very damaging, but I look at the biggest reason being bad luck with pitching and horrible pitching in general.
I think with some clutch hitting, the pitching stats change. With some clutch hits putting the Rox ahead or closing the door changes not only how our pitchers pitch (mentally) but also how the other team approaches an at bat. Things change significantly when pressure is on. Hence our pitchers pressing because our hitters aren’t producing in clutch situations, and our hitters pressing sometimes for no apparent reason. Tulo and Dex swinging at 1st pitches and popping out was ridiculous, but for some reason they felt the pressure to produce. Cook probably felt the pressure to be too fine on the mound because the hitters failed miserably in giving him a lead. Just relax boys and play the game. Put the pressure on the other team. I have (and many other have) been saying this all year, take a breath and relax.
By the way, I was wondering why the AZ pitching coach came out and settled down the pitcher after he booted Cook’s bunt. Our guy doesn’t do that, why did theirs.
When you get a couple runs ahead and then pack up the bats, you see the other team’s best relievers late in the game, which makes it tough to add insurance runs or counter-attack any comebacks. So all the pressure is on the Rockies bullpen to be perfect.
When you get the lead and add on early, you see the other team’s worst relievers. The other team might even pull it’s starters and give them some rest. The Rockies’ inability to put teams away when ahead has made the bullpen situation worse.
Hey the Monfronts are happy with this type of baseball, and for the next year, why shouldn’t we?
For as bad of team as we are, we probably get just as much fan attendance at the games as most winning team. The Monfronts are happy with this.
The reason everyone swings for the fences, even guys with little power, is simple. Tracy preaches the long ball.
Lansford hasn’t been able to develop the hitting of our young guys. Not sure if I want to see our even younger guys come up and have their swings tinkered with by this guy.
This team will need a lot of changes in the offseason, preferably earlier than that, if it wants to reach the playoffs again.
GO HUSKERS!!! THIS SATURDAY vs. Tennessee Chatanooga (LOL)!!! Yeah that’s right!! I am a Husker fan and an EYJ fan!! I bet more people like the Huskers in here than EYJ!
In all seriousness, how are the CU Buffs looking this year?
And you Husker fans will actually want to call that a win? REALLY?
Pooter, I don’t know, but the North Boulder Little League Wildcats made it to the LL Regionals semi-finals, 2 wins away from the LLWS.
Wow Pooter! A Huskers fan and EY Jr fan?! I can’t talk to you anymore.
This team needs a big overhaul from the front office to the dugout. These are a few of the things really needed right now.
1) Fire Dan O’Dowd. The farm system was his calling card as a GM. Look how bad it is right now. The trade of Jimenez was done to boost the farm system with pitchers. The pitchers that O’Dowd has drafted have not panned out. The draft this year was horrible due to the fact that they didn’t sign a lot of them. Now you have no infusion of talent to a minor league system that needs it. Add to the draft failures from previous years and you have a weak farm system. Fire the scout staff that does the domestic scouting. Only the foreign scouting department is doing well.
2) Fire Tracy and the rest of the manger staff. Tracy wants a homerun hitting team which they are not. They don’t have the hitters to play that way. This team needs to play better small ball and defense to win games. There are too many strikeouts when people are on base with no or one outs. He can’t adjust his game plan to do that better. Its why you see Giambi at the end of the game when people are on. Tracy wants to win it with a homerun that doesn’t come. Giambi has more strikeouts than homeruns at the end of the game. Let Seth Smith hit against lefties.
3) Get rid of old players like Giambi. He is taking place of someone who could add more versatility and a better pinch hitter when they need it. Quit trying to hang on to players like EY. He is not going to be more than a pinch hitter or runner. He can’t play defense.
Its just sad to see what this team turned into. Can’t blame injuries because you didn’t have the depth to cover them.
Yeah, you would think I am just trying to be controversial on this board but I’m really not. Not smart enough to debate. Believe it or not I am beginning to jump off the EYJ bandwagon. If he is not going to be a center fielder or second basemen then I see no future for him. I would rather have a power hitter in left field. I wanted him to be the Rox leadoff hitter that they havn’t had since……… Eric Young? Who else could you say was a good leadoff hitter for the Rox? There has not been many.
EYJ’s stance this year is idiotic, I understand it is to try to use his speed and keep the ball down, but it also eliminates all power and extra base threat. People constantly say, “Does EYJ ever hit the ball hard!!” No he doesn’t, because this stupid stance is designed to hit dribblers. He also looks way too tight up there like he has too much going threw his head. Just another example of poor coaching in the Rox system.
Hey Miketober, I saw and was rooting for North Boulder. Didn’t they lose to the team that won it all? I was rooting for Kearney, NE they too lost a few games before the LLWS.
Gary, great comments. I agree with everything you said.