San Diego – Thursday night as he walked off the mound, Jeremy Affeldt surveyed the carnage around him and grimaced.
This had to be some kind of mistake. The Rockies’ bullpen – a unit that protected leads with barbed wire for five weeks and raised the IQ of the manager with each zero – finally fractured. And Affeldt found himself at the epicenter of an 11-9 loss to the San Diego Padres that could send aftershocks for weeks. It was the simplest of questions with a painful, yet blunt answer: What went wrong in the 45-minute fifth inning? Try everything and you’d be getting warm after the Rockies fell three games behind the wild card-leading Padres.
“They kind of manhandled me,” Affeldt said. “I got my butt kicked tonight. There’s really not much else to say.”
San Diego sent 13 men to the plate against three pitchers, collected eight hits and scored nine runs. Pinch-hitter Marcus Giles batted twice in the inning.
Mike Cameron triggered the quake with a two-out, three-run home run that ruined Elmer Dessens’ otherwise competitive outing. Dessens exited with a 6-5 lead, making a case for another start next week if the team is unsuccessful in its pursuit of free agent David Wells.
What happened next is not for the squeamish or those with memories of forgettable nights at Wrigley Field and Minute Maid Park earlier this season. Affeldt didn’t retire a single hitter he faced, tagged for four hits and five runs. Backup catcher Pete LaForest saw through the trees, smashing a three-run home run. This inning was everything the bullpen was not since the all-star break.
Colorado’s relievers had a 2.32 ERA, easily the lowest in baseball. Affeldt hadn’t allowed a run in his previous 10 outings, and had been scored on in only five in his past 23 outings.
“Good bullpens make a manager look a lot smarter,” manager Clint Hurdle said before the game.
Such excellence was easy to take for granted as the Rockies’ rotation dissolved during the past three weeks. They are without three starters – Rodrigo Lopez, Jason Hirsh and Aaron Cook – which led to Dessens’ opportunity. It’s why prospect Franklin Morales will likely start Saturday in Los Angeles and why the Rockies spoke with Wells’ agent on Thursday.
If nothing else, this night provided a reminder that the Rockies are still learning not only how to play meaningful games, but how to win them. They led 6-2 entering the fifth. Four-run leads in a playoff chase can’t slip through fingers if a season is to be remembered with a smile.
The Rockies had plenty of offense. Brad Hawpe delivered an RBI double, Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins collected two hits, leaving them with 19 apiece this season against the Padres, tied for second-most by an opposing player.
But just as Dessens appeared poised to exit with five innings and his first victory as a Rockie, he stepped into a trap door. “It’s hard to feel good because we lost,” Dessens said. “I made a terrible pitch to Cameron.”
Cameron’s home run came after he glared at the plate umpire over a perceived bad call. His blast unclenched the fist of a Padres’ offense that is considered the only element that can prevent the team from reaching the postseason.
“When our offense scores nine runs,” Affeldt said, “there’s no way we should lose a game.”
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com.
