San Diego – Seeds for the Rockies’ blooming spring optimism were planted last August and September. That’s when they went 29-27, pronouncing themselves contenders for 2006.
But this summer’s dog days took a huge bite out of the Rockies. They played poorly, hit weakly and went 11-17 in August, effectively disappearing from the playoff hunt. They entered Monday night’s game against the San Diego Padres having lost two of their first three games in September.
“We still have 26 games to make a positive statement,” Matt Holliday said before the game. “I think that will define what our season turns out to be. Whatever the result of that is, we have to play good baseball. We have to gain some momentum for next season.”
That rose-colored notion was squashed by a walk-off, three-run homer by San Diego second baseman Josh Barfield. His shot off shaky Rockies closer Brian Fuentes lifted the Padres to a 7-5 victory.
The game displayed yet another way for the Rockies to lose. And it illustrated why the Padres lead the wild-card race by 1½ games and moved to within two games of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West.
Barfield’s left-field shot to the heart gave Fuentes his fifth blown save of the season. Fuentes could have survived a solo homer, but he issued one-out walks to Mike Cameron and Mike Piazza to set up the Padres’ winning rally.
“I just couldn’t find it,” Fuentes said. “I just couldn’t find my pitches. It’s frustrating that I didn’t get the job done.”
Barfield’s homer came on a fastball low and out of the strike zone. He seemed surprised by his heroics against Fuentes. After all, he came to the plate 0-for-6 with one strikeout against the left-hander.
“He’s the toughest closer I’ve seen,” Barfield said. “You have trouble picking up the ball because of his arm angle. I was just trying to put the ball in play.”
Fuentes hadn’t pitched in three days, and he hadn’t encountered a save opportunity since Aug. 9, but he said he wasn’t rusty. And manager Clint Hurdle – whose struggling Rockies have not won back- to-back games since Aug. 11-12 – was in no mood to let anybody off the hook.
“Any time you walk two hitters in the ninth inning in a one-run ballgame, you’re asking for trouble,” Hurdle said. “I’m not going to make excuses for our players. He’s the closer. He didn’t get the job done tonight and nobody feels worse than him. This was a game we had an opportunity to win and we didn’t get it done.”
Until the ninth-inning meltdown, the Rockies were all about creating bits of franchise history. Rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki hit his first major-league homer, a 429-foot laser to center leading off the Rockies’ three-run fifth.
Reliever Nate Field, a graduate of Littleton’s Heritage High School, became just the second Denver-born player to play for the Rockies. The other was right-handed pitcher Mark Knudson, who made four appearances for the Rockies in 1993. Field entered the game in the seventh and protected the Rockies’ 5-4 lead. He faced two batters, Barfield and Mark Bellhorn, and struck out both.
Todd Helton jump-started the Rockies with a two-run homer in the first inning. Helton’s homer to left, off Woody Williams, was his 14th homer of the season but just his second to the opposite field.
Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
