These are firsts that rarely have a pitcher lining up for seconds. Denny Bautista makes his Rockies debut tonight, working for the first time in San Francisco, where Colorado melts like Ghirardelli chocolate. He will also get his first encounter with slugger Barry Bonds. Fire away, son.
“I am not thinking about (Bonds). I am just focusing on throwing my fastball down in the strike zone,” said Bautista, a human light pole at 6-feet-5 and 190 pounds. “I can reach (98 mph), but I have to be able to control it.”
Bonds has clubbed six home runs in his past 10 games, leaving him 24 shy of Hank Aaron’s career record of 755. Bonds’ teammates say his left knee is stronger than it was early in the season, allowing him to drive the ball to the opposite field with power.
Bautista, acquired in the Ryan Shealy trade to Kansas City along with reliever Jeremy Affeldt, is perplexing. Despite his electric stuff at times, opponents hit better than .300 against him in Triple-A.
“Sometimes a guy hits with a new organization, sometimes it’s two or three teams later,” said Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, who is trying to determine whether Bautista is best suited as a reliever or a starter.
BATTING RACE: Matt Holliday is in position to become the Rockies’ fourth batting champion, joining Andres Galarraga, Larry Walker and Todd Helton. He is hitting .336 and trails NL leader Miguel Cabrera of Florida by four points.
“It’s not something I was thinking about going into the season,” Holliday said. “But it’s nice to have a chance. I have been blessed to have a lot of great things happen this year.”
FOOTNOTE: Affeldt, on the Rockies’ preliminary conversations about converting him back into a starter next spring, said, “I have no problem with whatever they want me to do. If they gave me a shot, I mean a real shot – like 25 games, not four – then, yes, I would like to start.”
