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Pitcher De La Rosas Duel
Apr 17th
Wednesday night wasn’t Rockies Jorge De La Rosa’s dream. But it wasn’t a nightmare, or at least it wasn’t a nightmare of his doing. Sometimes you take what you can get.
After three short and horrid starts, De La Rosa went six innings and was hurt more by misfortune than missed pitches in a 4-2 loss to the Padres at Petco Park in front of 17,428.
De La Rosa (0-3) had one poorly located pitch early — Tommy Medica’s leadoff home run in the second — but otherwise made a good percentage of his pitches while giving up three runs (two earned) on seven hits (two damaging infield hits in the fifth), with four strikeouts and a walk.
“I feel good, but we still lost the game,” De La Rosa said. “No matter how I did, it’s my fault when a mistake is made and we lose the game.”
Source: MLB
Cashner to face Rockies
Apr 16th
Andrew Cashner nearly made history in his last start. The recent past hasn’t been nearly as good for Rockies Jorge De La Rosa.
In Wednesday night’s third of four games between the clubs at Petco Park (they’ve split the first two), Cashner will make his first start since his one-hit shutout against the Tigers the last time out. It was the second time in five starts, dating back to last season, where Cashner has flirted with a no-hitter.
The Padres are the only Major League team without a no-hitter. Cashner is well aware of this fact. “Totally aware,” he said. Cashner struck out a career-high 11 batters and became the first pitcher in the Majors to throw a shutout when he blanked the Tigers, who, of course, are far from an offensive patsy. “It’s one of my goals,” Cashner said after the game. “I definitely want a no-hitter.” The Rockies have given Cashner fits since he joined the Padres in 2012. He’s 0-3 with a 5.40 ERA in seven games, including four starts. But with the roll he’s currently on — Cashner has a 1.29 ERA in 21 innings this season — anything can happen.
“He was incredible. He had the kind of stuff where something special could happen. You saw it right from the beginning,” said Padres third baseman Chase Headley. As for De La Rosa, he has a 9.69 ERA in three starts — each of which he has lasted just 4 1/3 innings. De La Rosa has 16 strikeouts in 13 innings pitched, but he has overthrown and run into troubles that have limited his effectiveness and his ability to last in ballgames. But as is the case with many pitchers, it’s nice that De La Rosa gets to take the mound at Petco Park. In seven games, including five starts, De La Rosa has gone 3-1 with a 2.56 ERA in San Diego, and held the Padres to a .195 batting average.
The only pitchers who have pitched 25 or more innings at Petco and have lower batting averages against: Felix Hernandez (.177), Ricky Nolasco (.178), Ubaldo Jimenez (.188) and Clayton Kershaw (.194). Rockies: Blackmon likely back in the lineup. With the Padres going to a right-hander, left-handed-hitting outfielder Charlie Blackmon can be inserted back into the lineup. Blackmon started against Padres lefty Eric Stults on Monday but sat against harder-throwing lefty Robbie Erlin on Tuesday. Blackmon, who went 0-for-1 with a walk as a pinch-hitter on Tuesday, has six multihit games in 10 starts and carries a .468 batting average into the contest. It turns out this is more than just a big start for Blackmon.
Source: Colorado Rockies
Rockies: Blackmon belted a walk-off, three-run homer to beat Cubs
Mar 20th
Charlie Culberson’s sacrifice fly after Cubs reliever Paolo Espino loaded the bases tied the game ahead of Blackmon’s blast.
After Javier Baez’s long solo homer in the eighth, the Cubs trailed by two with one out in the top of the ninth. Luis Valbuena hit a solo homer off Rockies reliever Greg Burke before Chris Valaika hit a bases-loaded grounder to short to force a run across. Another scored on the play when Rafael Ynoa threw wildly to second base.
Baez’s fifth home run tied him with the Reds’ Chris Heisey and Jordan Danks of the White Sox for the Cactus League lead. Baez, the Cubs’ top prospect, belted four homers in 17 spring games in 2013 and has passed that total in 13 games this spring.
Before the ninth-inning rallies, Carlos Gonzalez’s homer, off Cubs starter Carlos Villanueva, was the big swing in a game that featured conceivable regular-season batting orders for both teams.
Rockies left-hander Franklin Morales was in and out of the strike zone but limited the Cubs to one unearned run and one hit, with three strikeouts and three walks. Morales is competing for a rotation spot — one opened by Jhoulys Chacin’s right shoulder injury, which could keep him out until May — with righty Jordan Lyles.
Morales also started the Rockies’ third-inning rally with a ground-rule double. He looked unsteady running and was visited by manager Walt Weiss and athletic trainer Heath Townsend, the trainer at Triple-A Colorado Springs who was working the game. Morales felt fine enough to lumber to third on Charlie Blackmon’s single and take his time crossing the plate on Gonzalez’s second homer of the spring.
Morales said he actually felt tightness in his left groin while issuing a walk to Darwin Barney in the top of the third and was trying to protect the injury while running. Morales gave up his lone hit and struck out one in the fourth.
“When I hit, I didn’t feel anything but I made sure I didn’t run hard,” said Morales, who threw 69 pitches.
However, Morales walked leadoff men in the first and third innings. The first one became a run when Rockies first baseman Justin Morneau dropped a pickoff throw to allow Emilio Bonafacio to advance two bases. Bonafacio scored on Justin Ruggiano’s fielder’s choice grounder.
Morales was more sharp with his breaking pitches than his fastball.
“Early in the game, I threw a lot of fastballs up, but I made the adjustments with my breaking pitch,” Morales said.
Villanueva, who could pitch in starting and relief roles for the Cubs, struck out eight in his four innings. He gave up three runs, three hits and a walk.
Barney doubled in the fifth to drive in Bonafacio, who reached on a two-out infield hit against LaTroy Hawkins.
The strikeouts were some form of revenge for Villanueva, who is 0-3 with an 11.57 ERA in 13 career games against Colorado.
“This team has given me nightmares,” Villanueva said. “They had their full squad out there. The strikeouts are nice, but the fact I was getting swings and misses and quick outs, I’ll take that any day. I felt I could’ve gone six, seven innings, three runs.”
Villanueva was impressed by Gonzalez’s homer.
“I’ll take it now, rather than the season,” Villanueva said. “That guy can hit. You don’t need me to tell you that. I’ve tried to go backdoor with the slider, and it just stayed on his swing — it’s a perfect swing path for him and he did what he’s supposed to do. That’s why he is who he is.”