With one swing, Clint Barmes created anger, confusion and elation.
There were two on and two out Wednesday when the Rockies shortstop stepped in against San Diego Padres closer Trevor Hoffman. Barmes represented the tying run. Hoffman represents, five years after he retires, anyway, the Hall of Fame.
With two strikes, he unleashed his Bugs Bunny changeup – players compare it to a cartoon because of the way it starts and stops, as if animated. Barmes couldn’t resist, starting to hack at the outside pitch before halting his cut. He considered it a check swing.
On appeal, first-base umpire Jeff Kellogg said Barmes went around, securing the Padres’ 5-2 victory. San Diego’s bench emptied in celebration as Rockies manager Clint Hurdle shook his head in disbelief.
“I didn’t agree,” Hurdle said. “But I have never seen them change a call yet.”
Talk in the clubhouse afterward was not about the call, but what followed: that Kellogg allegedly made an inappropriate hand gesture toward Barmes as he stared down the line after the strikeout. Barmes acknowledged the issue, but said the matter was quickly resolved.
“There was a call made (by the umpires) to go over what happened, to make sure there was no confusion. There’s nothing to it,” Barmes said. “Hoffman got the best of me.”
Strange or not, the ending provided a necessary conclusion for a Padres team that was bludgeoned 20-1 on Tuesday. As victims of the most lopsided win in Rockies history, the Padres gave momentum to mounting criticism of the National League West.
The reality, however, is every fifth day San Diego is one of baseball’s best teams. That’s when Jake Peavy takes the mound. Less than 24 hours after Rockies hitters went 15-for-25 in the first three innings, Peavy surrendered just two runs in 7 2/3 innings.
“He doesn’t fear anything or anyone when he’s out there,” Todd Helton said.
Peavy’s excellence came at the expense of Rockies pitcher Mike Esposito, making his big-league debut. With family in the ballpark and butterflies in his stomach, Esposito delivered a respectable performance: three runs in five innings after not starting in nearly a month.
The ninth inning hinted of a comeback, even if the Rockies are short-handed. Top pinch- hitter Jorge Piedra is tending to a family matter, an MRI of Larry Bigbie’s sore right Achilles on Tuesday showed fluid – “At most I will only pinch-hit the rest of the season,” he said – and Aaron Miles, after reaching safely, was removed for pinch-runner JD Closser.
“I hurt my (right) foot when I fouled off a ball (a few days ago),” Miles said. “I couldn’t run.”
When Hoffman closed the door on Barmes, the Padres, if only a game over .500, had no reason to hide.
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-820-5447 or trenck@denverpost.com.
