The game had been so crisp, so pristine. For nearly two hours, the Rockies played as if they were quilting a baseball mosaic.
Jason Jennings turned bats into splinters, Matt Holliday stole a home run, Omar Quintanilla started a mouth- agape double play before their memorable design suddenly turned into shards of glass in the hands of their all-star closer.
The Rockies lost 8-7 to the Arizona Diamondbacks on a soggy Saturday night – Brian Fuentes the most notable victim as the teams combined for 13 ninth-inning runs.
“That’s not the kind of history you want any part of,” Rockies reliever Ray King said. “It’s not a night the bullpen is proud of.”
In wasting a gem from Jennings, the Rockies plunged 2 1/2 games behind the San Diego Padres and fell to 15-20 against National League West opponents.
Fuentes, so poised, so steady, teetered immediately. He jogged in with the game tied 1-1, the sky gunmetal gray and mist spraying lightly around the ballpark. It had the feel of a football game, in which a violent ending seemed appropriate on bone-shifting tackling.
The collision came when Chad Tracy’s perfectly timed swing launched Fuentes’ 90 mph fastball into the Rockies bullpen for a grand slam. On contact, Fuentes’ head whipped back. He watched only briefly, his dropped jaw adequately explaining the ball’s eventual landing spot.
“He’s cross-firing you and it’s tough to pick up the ball. You kind of have to swing where you think it’s going to be,” said Tracy, left to talk about the hit with Fuentes unavailable for comment. “I got a good pitch to handle, saw it good out of his hand.”
That Tracy’s blast wasn’t technically the game-winner spoke to the absurdity of the last at-bats. In all, there were 23 batters and 11 hits and a cap flap involving Diamondbacks closer Jorge Julio that ticked off the Rockies.
Colorado’s spirited ninth included a bases-loaded double from catcher Yorvit Torrealba, a dropped flyball from Jeff DaVanon, a pitch over the Rockies’ Luis Gonzalez’s head and a flame-dousing strikeout of Quintanilla on a 92 mph fastball.
When Julio came in, the Rockies immediately asked the umpire to check his cap, which was noticeably white with rosin. After it was wiped off, Julio tipped the cap toward the Rockies’ dugout.
“Let an idiot be an idiot,” King said. “Child’s play,” manager Clint Hurdle added.
Closers are ultimately judged by performance, not theatrics. And what made Fuentes’ mistake notable was not how far Tracy blasted the ball – 388 feet – but from where (the left side). Left-handers entered the game 2-for-30 against the Rockies’ two-time all-star but collected three hits against him Saturday. Fuentes’ ERA ballooned from 2.36 to 3.89.
“His command was a little off, but honestly I am mad because I think I could have done more,” Torrealba said. “He will be ready to go (today).”
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-820-5457 or trenck@denverpost.com.
Bullpen breakdown
The Rockies’ bullpen suffered another meltdown Saturday night in an 8-7 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Here are the particulars:
* The seven runs allowed – all in the ninth inning – were the most given up by the bullpen this season. The seven runs, on eight hits, also marked the most given up by the Rockies in any inning this season.
* Closer Brian Fuentes gave up a career-high six runs on six hits in a third of an inning, and his ERA rose from 2.36 to 3.89.
* The bullpen has allowed 10 homers in the past 15 games, more than half the 19 it has yielded all season.
– Patrick Saunders
