White, Matt Reynolds yield big hits; Rockies lose eighth straight
The Colorado Rockies lost their eighth straight game, falling 9-6 to the Houston Astros as Alex White and Matt Reynolds yielded three-run doubles.
The eight-game losing streak is the Rockies longest since they dropped their final eight games last season. That was part of a 1-13 end-of-season nosedive that the Rockies seem bent on repeating, if not, yikes, outdoing.
White gave up six hits and five runs in 4 2/3 innings as his ERA with the Rockies rose to 8.63 (32 1/3 innings, 31 earned runs). He retired the side in order in the first and allowed a run in the second on two hits, the second a double off the cozy left field fence by Clint Barmes. White finished with no walks and six strikeouts but hurt himself repeatedly in the third.
He gave up a leadoff double to pitcher Henry Sosa. With one out, White hit consecutive batters, nailing Jose Altuve with a 2-2 pitch and J.D. Martinez when the count was 3-1. White then fell behind Carlos Lee 2-0, and He hammered White’s next pitch over the head of center fielder Dexter Fowler and onto the quirky hill in the deepest portion of Minute Maid Park. That three-run double gave the Astros a 4-2 lead.
White threw 93 pitches, 55 strikes, and gave up a final run in the fifth, which began with an infield single by Jordan Schafer and another single by Altuve. With one out, Schafer moved to third on White’s wild pitch and scored on Lee’s sacrifice fly.
Kevin Kouzmanoff, who went 3-for-4, led off the seventh with a homer that cut the Astros lead to 5-3. But in the bottom of the inning, Josh Roenicke gave up singles to two of the first three batters he faced. Roenicke threw a wild pitch that put runners on second and third but got Martinez to ground out.
After intentionally walking Lee, Roenicke gave way to left-hander Matt Reynolds. Astros manager Brad Mills countered by sending up Matt Downs, a right-handed hitter, to pinch hit for left-handed hitting Brian Bougusevic. Reynolds got ahead of Downs 0-2 but then threw a slider that caught far too much of the plate. Downs drove the ball to left-center, clearing the bases and giving the Astros an 8-6 lead.
Wilin Rosario, who was charged with a passed ball and could have done a better job at least one of three wild pitches, hit a long three-run homer to left-center with one out in the eighth. But Jim Miller gave up two walks sandwiched around a bunt single _ second baseman Jordan Pacheco didn’t cover first base after third baseman Kouamanoff fielded the bunt by J.R. Towles. Pacheco began his career at second base but was converted to catcher after spring training in 2008. This was his first game in the majors at second base, a position he hadn’t played since 2007 at short-season Class A Tri-City.
Schafer’s sacrifice fly made it 9-6, and Mark Melancon,, who went to Golden High School, struck out two of the three batters he faced in the ninth to seal his 20th save.
The Rockies have been outscored 58-25 during their season-high eight-game losing streak and fell to 32-43 on the road.
Ty Wigginton struck out in the second with no out and runners on first and third and struck out again in the fourth after Seth Smith led off with a double. Wigginton is 18-for-114 (.158) with 36 strikeouts with runners in scoring position.
After Kouamanoff homered in the seventh, Rosario doubled and the Rockies ended up with one out and runners on second and third. Fowler grounded to third baseman Chris Johnson, who threw Rosario out at the plate. After Pacheco walked to load the bases, Troy Tulowitzki, who went 0-for-4 and played seven innings in the field, flied to left.
Jack, thanks for pointing out Pacheco’s mistake in not covering first on the bunt. I missed that part of the game. That’s exactly what I was talking about in the game comments — I see no reason to play a guy at a completely unfamiliar position in a regular season game, no matter how “meaningless” the game may be. Save that for winter ball and spring training.
Pacheco was out of position. It wasn’t a lack of hustle getting to the base. He was playing deep. Maybe some of the blame can be laid on the more experience Tulo or coaches for not directing him to the proper location?
Also, give credit to a smarter manager for actually knowing when to call the bunt and putting a ball in play to see what will come of it. Something our manager is obviously too stubborn to do.
Jack, Steve (or anyone else):
Anyone have some insight into why Alex White is struggling so much? I know he has a lingering finger injury (which, sorry Alex, I hope is hurting like hell), but what is wrong with his execution that’s resulting in him being hammered so much? From what I can suss out over the tube, his breaking pitches seem to be really flat. Obviously if you’re throwing a lot of 80 mph pitches straight around the strike zone you’re going to give up a lot of taters. Don’t know if that’s what everyone else is seeing though.
Jon
What’s with Matt Reynolds? After a good season last year, he hasn’thad a good season this year. Will we need to find a second situational lefty to pair with Brothers, or do we think that Reynolds will bounce back? It seems that Escalona is putting up good numbers? Might he win a spot in next year’s bullpen? And I have the same question that Jon S. does about Alex White? At this point, all you could confidently pencil into the starting rotation for April is Chacin and Pomeranz. Who else will be in the starting rotation in April?
Jon, I won’t pretend to have any special knowledge on pitching or any inside information. But I did take a good look at White’s stat line, and here’s what stands out:
His percentage of flyballs that go out of the park — HR per flyball — is off the charts bad. Right now it’s at 22.6 % of flyballs he gives up turn into home runs. Data suggest that pitchers have some control over this (how hard fly balls are hit), but that it’s mostly luck. Typical would be something like 10 % — that’s where Jason Hammel’s been his entire Rockies career.
Because of that, White’s xFIP — fielding independent pitching adjusting to a normal HR/FB rate — is now at 4.85. Which isn’t good, but isn’t awful.
So overall, White hasn’t had an impressive debut by any means, but his debut hasn’t been as discouraging as the raw stats would suggest.
The bad news is that I’m not seeing the really good sinker he was advertised as having. His groundball rate is about 45 % — again, for comparison, that’s right where Hammel’s been throughout his career. That’s not an extreme groundballer such as Aaron Cook, who’s been in the 58 % range for most of his career. He did show some strikeout stuff yesterday, so obviously he’s a work in progress. Right now the combination of being a guy who’s walked too many, struck out too few, and given up too many flyballs still amounts to an unimpresive debut even if balls weren’t carrying out of the park at an astounding rate. Let’s hope a normal spring will allow him to start showing the stuff that made him a very good (not great) prospect.
Jon S what I see in Alex White is very similar to what we have already seen with Esmil Rogers. A hard throwing right hander with a fairly violent motion and delivery. The stuff seems to be there on his pitches in terms of velocity and movement, but the problem for me is the lack of pitch command because when he misses in the strike zone he is missing “up” in the strikezone – thus the big flys.
Big league hitters will punish pitches in the middle of the strike zone, and the missed location that apparently didn’t hurt him in the minors is killing him in the MLB. Having said all that, I am not too worried about Alex White, because I think this is a very normal learning process that he has to work his way through.
Further it seemed to me that last night he was missing badly with the breaking ball, so the hitters began sitting and waiting on the fastball, which is hittable when it is in the middle of the plate and they know that it is coming. This could be because of the finger injury maybe, but just as likely it means that the breaking pitch needs some further development.
And while in many ways he is similar to Esmil Rogers, there are obvious differences as well in that he has a bigger body frame to work with and demonstrates some extreme mental toughness that should serve him well as he matures in the MLB.
Still believe that White will develop into a strong Aaron Cook (in his prime) type starting pitcher, and that’s not bad at all especially if he can stay somwhat more healthy than Cook has recently. That’s my two cents worth!
Hate to say it but I called all this back on Sept 1.
“The Rockies were somewhat in it still last year and they still quit. Imagine how this September is going to go knowing we have no shot at a playoff spot. I’m glad football starts in two weeks! GO STEELERS!!!!”
I didn’t put a deposit on season tickets last year because they quit and I was disgusted with this team. I will be doing the same exact thing this year. This team has to change fast!!! Keep Tulo, Cargo and Helton. Get rid of everyone else!!! Of course I know that won’t happen and you can’t do that but I wouldn’t mind seeing that happen. This group of players is sickening to look at(along with Jim Tracy).
You did call it …
… keepers are obviously Tulo and CarGo, and Helton is here whether they want it or not. De La Rosa is under contract and will be back. Brothers is cheap and had a fine debut, so I’d like to see him back.
Everyone else is expendable. I’d like to see a lot of trades to change the fundamental character of this team. I’m not talking about salary dumps — the only salary dump I would’ve liked to have seen is Street, and it’s too late for that. There won’t be any takers. I am talking about fairly even trades. A Seth Smith for a useful reliever. A Chris Iannetta (if they feel they have to do it; I think it’s unlikely they’d get fair value in return) for an outfielder or a potential starter blocked in some other system, kind of like Hammel was in Tampa a few years ago. That kind of stuff — new guys who project roughly the same as the guys who are being moved, but who will be conducive to getting a fresh start. As I’ve said before, even with Ubaldo gone and De La Rosa iffy, I don’t think there’s a reason to punt the 2012 season. The division is just too weak, and the possibility of catching some breaks and getting some unexpectedly strong performances (see the Dbacks this year) is a real one.
White is still not a 100 percent from the finger injury. It’s affecting the effectiveness of his sinker and his ability in general to keep the ball down.
Agbayani, I would also consider Chacin and Pomeranz untouchable for now (we certainly don’t have extra starters). And for the moment I would try to staff the bullpen internally, while trading one or two relievers, so my trades would focus on starting pitchers for a year, a 3B for 2 years, and a right handed outfielder. Everyone else can be traded as you suggested.