The 92- and 93-mph four-seam fastballs Aaron Cook fired at the San Diego Padres on Sunday afternoon came straight out of his pregame blueprint.
But there was more to Cook’s vintage performance than choosing fastballs over his trusty sinker. Fiery determination, fueled by weeks of frustration, had a lot to do with the redhead’s success.
The result was a 6-3 Rockies victory at Coors Field. Cook, a sluggish 1-3 with a 5.54 ERA in August entering Sunday, threw eight strong innings, giving up two runs on five hits. He struck out five, and, for the fifth time this season, walked none.
The Rockies won for just the second time in their past nine games.
“There comes a point and time when you put your foot down and mentally say: ‘Enough is enough. Now just go out and play,”‘ manager Clint Hurdle said. “This was as much needed for our ballclub as it was for Aaron.”
For the short term, perhaps, but what Cook discovered will be important to his future.
“I didn’t put any more pressure on myself today, but I think I was more aggressive and went after their batters,” Cook said. “I didn’t let them get comfortable at the plate, and I think that’s going to be a huge key for me the rest of my career.”
The loss was costly for the Padres, who dropped to 6-10 against the Rockies this season. Coupled with the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers’ 6-3 victory over Arizona, the Padres fell two games behind in the National League West.
“Cook dominated us for a while there today as good as anybody has,” San Diego manager Bruce Bochy said.
Cook has relied primarily on his late-breaking sinker as his dominant weapon. Sunday, he threw 75 percent four-seam fastballs. A recent conversation with injured reliever Mike DeJean persuaded Cook to alter his game plan.
“I’ve known I needed to make a change for a while,” Cook said. “I sat down with Mike the other day and he told me that I needed to pound the four-seamer. He said, ‘Everybody in the league knows you are a sinkerball pitcher, so you have to do something to keep them off-balance.”‘
So Cook kept the Padres honest with his four-seamer, then got them to chase his sinker. The result was 11 groundball outs. Until a rough seventh inning, Cook allowed just two hits, both singles up the middle that just sneaked under his glove. In the seventh, Padres catcher Mike Piazza led off with a single and Adrian Gonzalez followed with a 420-foot two-run homer to center.
Offensively, the Rockies torched San Diego starter Jake Peavy for the second time this season. Peavy was especially vulnerable because of a sinus infection that tired him as the game went on.
Cory Sullivan’s single knocked in Colorado’s first run in the second, and his bloop double down the left-field line stretched Colorado’s lead to 3-0 in the fourth. The Rockies’ three-run fifth featured a two-run homer by Matt Holliday, a double by Brad Hawpe and a run-scoring single by rookie catcher Chris Iannetta, the first hit of his major-league career.
Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
