One hundred games into the season, the Rockies remain a 50-50 proposition.
In Tuesday night’s 5-3 loss to the Padres, they got a promising seven-inning performance from 23-year-old starter Ubaldo Jimenez, and they put together a late-game rally, pumping up the volume at Coors Field.
The Rockies even caught a break when San Diego ace Chris Young left the game with an injury after just two innings on the mound.
What they didn’t get was a shutdown performance from their bullpen.
As a result, with 62 games left, the Rockies are 50-50 and they trail the Dodgers by 5 1/2 games in the National League West.
With the game tied 3-3 entering the eighth, Ramon Ramirez relieved Jimenez and promptly struck out Brian Giles. But Michael Barrett drilled a double to left and Milton Bradley chopped an infield single down the third-base line. In came lefty Jeremy Affeldt to face left-handed-hitting Adrian Gonzalez. But that by-the-book strategy failed when Gonzalez laced a double over center fielder Willy Taveras, scoring Barrett for the game-winner.
The Padres picked up an insurance run on Khalil Greene’s sacrifice fly off Jorge Julio.
“He flat beat me,” Affeldt said of Gonzalez’s double. “I got the pitch where I wanted it – a fastball down and in – so when he hit it, it surprised me. I was trying to get him to roll over on it and ground out, but he put a good swing on it.”
Through the first six innings the Rockies managed just two hits, but they tied the game 3-3 in the seventh. Singles by Garrett Atkins and Brad Hawpe, an RBI single by Yorvit Torrealba and a pinch-hit, two-run double by Ryan Spilborghs brought the crowd to its feet. But Spilborghs killed the rally when he got thrown out after rounding third on Taveras’ infield single.
The Rockies’ silver lining was Jimenez’s performance.
“I just wanted to take us deep into the game and give us a chance to win,” Jimenez said.
That’s what he did. Throw out an ugly first inning, and Jimenez pitched a gem. In seven innings he allowed just four hits, struck out five, walked two and hit a batter.
But the opening frame showed why the fireballer remains a project. After getting two quick outs, he walked Bradley, gave up a single to Gonzalez and then shook his head in frustration after Mike Cameron launched a three-run homer. Jimenez threw 14 straight fastballs to open the game, and Cameron made him pay.
“They weren’t hitting the fastball, so I continued to throw it, inside and outside, until they proved they could hit it,” Jimenez said.
Though the rookie still has no decisions after four major-league starts, he is making a bid for a permanent spot in the rotation. Rookie Jason Hirsh, who threw 68 pitches Monday in a rehab game for Triple-A Colorado Springs, has one more rehab start to test his sprained ankle before the Rockies will make their decision.
Although the Padres snapped a four-game losing streak and moved within one game of the Dodgers, they lost Young for at least one start. Young, a leading candidate for the NL Cy Young Award, strained his left oblique pitching to Atkins in the second.
Staff writer Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
