The Rockies have a friend in the diamond business.
After the Rockies’ 3-2 victory over the Twins on Saturday night — in a gem of a game — the jewelry chain that honors the star of the game should have given the sparkling bauble to . . . Eric Rumer.
Eric who? Rumer what?
Newly acquired starting pitcher? Speedy young outfielder just brought up from Colorado Springs? Closer du jour?
Eric Rumer is a computer systems analyst who was sitting innocently with his two young daughters in Section 120, Row 1, Seat 1, down the right-field line.
Rumer made the move that turned around the game for the Rockies.
“Ever made a game-saving catch?” I asked the 31-year-old Rumer.
“Not in the major leagues,” he said. “I did in high school and softball.”
At the seventh-inning stretch, the Rockies’ season continued to be on the brink of unmitigated disaster. The Twins had just scored two runs for a 2-1 lead, and pitcher Livan Hernandez had pitched a real-live perfect game for the first five innings — and still seemed to be on top of his game in the seventh.
Matt Holliday led off and fouled off a pitch beyond first. Twins first baseman Justin Morneau, glove up and open, was poised to get the big out.
But Rumer and his “Official Derek Jeter Glove” (10 years old) reached higher and better and prevented Morneau from making a catch.
He was the Anti-Bartman, helping his home team, not hurting it.
Rum-er! Rum-er! Eric “The Ready” Rumer.
Sign him up. Can he pitch?
The current rule in baseball is that a spectator can go for a ball as long as it’s not on the field side of the wall, and it’s not interference. Rumer, umpire Tim Welke judged, didn’t interfere with Morneau, who, of course, complained to the ump, but “not to me,” Rumer said. Replays showed that the ump was right.
“I know the rule,” Rumer said. “I just reacted naturally.” And he might have wanted to save his 5- and 8-year old kids, at their first game of the season, from being whacked by a baseball. Rumer hadn’t sat there since the opening game. “As I was reaching for the ball, I could feel him (Morneau) closing in. (Breath on his neck?) I just kept concentrating.” Man’s a quote machine.
Now, back to the game. With his Bee Gees and Rumer assist (Staying Alive), Holliday doubled down the left-field line, and Todd Helton sin- gled him to third. Garrett Atkins sent Holliday home with a sacrifice fly.
Score tied. The Rockies went ahead forever in the eighth. Without Rumer’s play, the teams might be playing as you read this.
Rumer should have been invited out for a curtain call or been recognized to tip his cap. Although he wasn’t named star of the game and didn’t receive a free diamond, “my daughters are proud of me.” That’s what matters.
The Rumers were among the 43,149 who came out on a night that was the 10th anniversary of David Wells’ perfect game.
The 8,456 walk-ups, a franchise record, must have, as Dizzy Dean used to say on broadcasts, “had a notion.” They knew it was going to be perfect, perfect, perfect on both sides.
Not one member of the Rockies reached base in the first five innings. But guess what? The Twins didn’t get a run in the first six innings.
Greg Reynolds had the most successful debut for a Rockies’ rookie starter at Coors Field in club history. He pitched a three-hit, two-K, two-BB shutout for six innings. He was gassing after 91 pitches (and had been torpedoed in the leg by a smash), and Hurdle pinch hit for Reynolds in the bottom the sixth (and the Rockies scored the first run). There was some first-guessing about Hurdle’s move, but no second-guessing.
Reynolds, with two solid starts, is solidly in the rotation at a time when the Rockies need help from people on the mound and fans in Section 120.
Hernandez (6-2), who the Rockies admit they should have signed in the offseason, obviously was shaken by Morneau’s miss and Holliday’s double. He didn’t end up with a no-hitter, a shutout or a victory. He ended up being lifted in the eighth.
Hernandez and Reynolds combined for a jewel through six.
The Rockies stopped another miserable losing streak (at six, their longest of the season), are no longer the worst team in baseball (having shared that dubious title with San Diego and Seattle) and actually produced timely hits (4-of-7 with runners in scoring position) on Saturday night. Willy Taveras, on the cusp of being removed from the lineup, had three special catches, an RBI single and a bunt single.
Ryan Spilborghs is the chipotle-hot pinch hitter. He drove in the winning run and has six hits and a walk in his last nine pinch-hitting appearances. Clint Barmes had a hit and is batting .351.
He has been Wally Pipp and is now Lou Gehrig.
Brian Fuentes earned his fifth save.
And Eric Rumer earned his first save.
The game was well-played in a snappy 2:39.
Perfect.
