San Diego – Quiet, polite and unassuming, Jason Smith is the epitome of a journeyman utility player waiting for his shot.
He’s getting it now, and there’s nothing quiet about it.
He smashed two homers Sunday in the Rockies’ 10-4 rout of the San Diego Padres. His first homer, a 426-foot blast to right-center, tied for the sixth-longest in Petco Park history. Smith also clubbed a homer Friday night and is hitting a team-high .563. Not bad for a guy who almost didn’t make the 25-man roster.
“Coming to the Rockies has exceeded my expectations,” Smith said. “I came into spring training just to have fun and not put too much pressure on myself. Right now, I’m playing the way I’m capable of playing, but sometimes I don’t always allow myself to do that. Sometimes I’ve put too much pressure on myself.”
Smith was a nonroster invitee to spring training who has played pro ball for 10 years but spent the past five bouncing back and forth between the big leagues and minors. Last year with Detroit he logged just 27 games and 58 at-bats, hitting .190. Maybe that’s why his home run trot looks more like a run for a triple.
“I never think the ball’s going out,” he said.
Smith got his first start with the Rockies on Friday because second baseman Luis Gonzalez was recovering from an injured wrist. Gonzalez is fine now, but Smith got the starting call again Sunday because manager Clint Hurdle wanted left-handed batters to face Padres ace Jake Peavy – and because Smith has been creaming the ball. In three games against the Padres, he was 8-for-13 (.615), with three homers, two doubles, six RBIs and two walks.
“I’d say he had himself quite a series,” Hurdle said.
Jennings applauds support
Rockies pitcher Jason Jennings picked up his first win Sunday, allowing three runs and five hits in six innings.
“It’s easy to relax and pitch when you get this kind of support,” he said.
His day started off rough when he gave up a run in the first and then yielded a two-run homer in the fourth, giving the Padres a 3-2 lead. The Rockies rescued him with a seven-run fifth inning.
“I felt like I got my sinker down pretty well and was moving my slider,” said Jennings, who has a 2.77 ERA in two starts.
Footnotes
After going 1-for-10 with five strikeouts in the opening series against Arizona, Cory Sullivan is hitting .400. He was 9-for-15 with three doubles and three triples against the Padres. … There is no escaping the Village People’s “YMCA” for Rockies closer Brian Fuentes. When the song was played when he entered a game at Coors Field last week, he wasn’t very happy. Sunday, when he mopped up the final inning at Petco Park, he was greeted with the same pop tune. … Starting pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim, on the disabled list with a strained right hamstring, said he’s “80-90 percent,” adding, “I’m getting better every day.” Kim is scheduled to pitch a simulated game Wednesday in Phoenix. He’s eligible to come off the DL on Thursday and likely will pitch two rehab games before rejoining the Rockies.
Rockies recap
Center fielder Cory Sullivan not only is red hot, he is making history. The Rockies’ leadoff man tripled twice in the fifth inning Sunday, marking the 11th time in major-league history a player hit two triples in the same inning. The most recent time it had happened was April 21, 1951, by the Washington Senators’ Gil Coan.
In the Rockies’ seven-run fifth inning at Petco Park, they also got a two-run triple from Brad Hawpe, giving them three triples in the same inning. As a team, the Rockies never had hit more than two triples in the same game.
“I didn’t even realize I hit two triples in one inning until somebody told me after the game,” said Sullivan, who also hit a third-inning double and now is hitting .400. “But it’s always good to do things that haven’t happened in 55 years.”
HITTING PEAVY: The Rockies consider Padres starter Jake Peavy one of the best pitchers in baseball, but they punished him Sunday. When Hawpe and Jason Smith hit back-to-back homers off Peavy in the fourth inning, it marked just the second time in his career that he served up consecutive homers. The eight earned runs he allowed, as well as the 11 hits, tied for the most in his career.
