Pitching masterpieces have been rare at Coors Field, but on a sunny Easter Sunday, an announced crowd of 25,144 gazed at two of them.
For only the second time in the ballpark’s history, there was a 1-0 game. Philadelphia’s Picasso was painted by Brett Myers. He scattered seven hits over 7 2/3 innings to claim victory.
Colorado’s van Gogh was the work of Aaron Cook, who pitched arguably the best game of his career, only to came away a loser. In eight innings Cook allowed just one run on six hits.
But one pitch, a meaty fastball left up over the plate in the seventh, doomed Cook. Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, last year’s National League rookie of the year, smashed Cook’s mistake into the Phillies’ bullpen beyond the right-center field fence for a 427-foot homer.
“I didn’t get the pitch in enough,” Cook said. “I knew I could blow him up if I got it in there. It just came over the plate a little bit. It was just one of those days. Our offense didn’t produce today, but I’ve had outings where I’ve had seven or eight runs to work with and blown that.”
Myers, using a wicked cut-fastball and a timely curve to keep the Rockies off-balance, was superb and improved his record against the Rockies to 4-0.
“The guy’s got electric stuff,” said Cory Sullivan, whose only hit was a bunt single in the eighth. “He’s efficient with his fastball, and he’s got an 89-90-mph cutter that he uses effectively.”
Relievers Arthur Rhodes and Tom Gordon put the finishing brush strokes to Myers’ masterpiece.
When it was suggested that Myers should bottle his secret about pitching at Coors Field, Rhodes quipped: “You could make a lot of money selling it. That’s a darn good game to pitch in this ballpark.”
Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, who saw his team lose at home for the fourth time in six games this season, couldn’t offer much about the day’s events other than praise for the pitching.
“They scored one more run than us; there’s not much more you can say,” Hurdle said. “There were two grown men out there pitching today.”
There has been a lot of talk from the Rockies this spring about maturity and growing up.
Their early 7-5 record indicates that they are making headway, but getting a clutch hit here or there Sunday would have made for a dramatic statement against a very good pitcher. Unfortunately for the Rockies, the statement never came.
In the fourth, with Todd Helton at third and Garrett Atkins at first, Matt Holliday grounded into an inning-ending double play. In the sixth, again with Helton at third and Atkins at first, Holliday came to the plate. He got a pitch up in the zone that he thought he could drive. Instead, the rally died when he grounded out to short.
“It’s a game of centimeters and millimeters sometimes,” said Holliday, the hero of Saturday night’s victory, in which he drove in five runs. “If the ball’s just that much further out on my barrel, it’s a different ballgame.”
The Rockies’ final gasp came in the eighth. Sullivan’s bunt single and Helton’s walk set the stage for Atkins, the Rockies’ hottest hitter. He drove a 3-2 pitch from Rhodes down the right-field line. For a moment, the crowd rose to its feet, anticipating a game-winning hit. Instead, Bobby Abreu made a pretty, running catch.
“I hit it good,” Atkins said. “But I saw him creeping in and I thought, ‘Oh, man, he’s going to catch that.’ It’s just one of those things. You can’t hit the hole every time.”
Staff writer Patrick Saunderscan be reached at 303-820-5459 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
