CINCINNATI — Jorge De La Rosa has always been a tease.
His hopping fastball and nasty slider make the 27-year-old southpaw irresistible at first glance. But there was always that one inning, that one meltdown, that’s kept him from reaching his promise.
But not Saturday night at Great American Ball Park, as the Rockies beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-1 for their eighth win in nine games. The Rockies
remain six games behind Arizona in the National League West.
Since the all-star break, Rockies starters are 8-1 with a 3.62 ERA, and that includes Kip Wells’ meltdown against the Dodgers last week when
he coughed up seven earned runs in one-third of an inning.
De La Rosa delivered 6M stellar innings Saturday — his longest outing of the season — allowing one run on two hits.
“The first five innings in his last two or three starts, he’s been very sharp,” said catcher Yorvit Torrealba, who’s become De La Rosa’s quality-control man behind the plate. “He’s been able to throw any pitch in any count.”
It was De La Rosa’s second impressive victory in a row. In his last start, he held the Pirates to one run on seven hits in six innings.
“It’s only two games in a row. We’ll see if I can go for three in a row,” he said.
De La Rosa struck out eight, but there were a couple of blemishes. He walked five and unleashed two wild pitches in the seventh.
“Five walks on a night is never a number you are looking to throw up there,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “But at the same time, he had some electric stuff tonight — eight punch-outs.”
When De La Rosa’s wheels start to wobble a little, Torrealba says it’s often because he’s trying too hard.
“That’s the problem. I have to control my emotions,” De La Rosa said. “I was controlling them very good tonight.”
De La Rosa didn’t allow a hit until the fourth, when Ken Griffey Jr. stroked a majestic two-out homer to left. It was the 607th homer of Griffey’s career and 14th of the season. De La Rosa became the 389th pitcher to serve up a homer to Griffey.
The Rockies, meanwhile, treated Reds starter Homer Bailey as if he were Homer Simpson, spraying 15 hits off him in 4M innings. It was the most hits against a Cincinnati pitcher since Jimmy Anderson allowed 15 on June 26, 2003, at St. Louis.
The Rockies broke the game open in the fifth, scoring four runs on six straight hits off Bailey, including RBI singles by Troy Tulowitzki and Torrealba and a two-run single by De La Rosa.
The score could have been more lopsided except for baserunning errors. One of the most striking came in the fifth when Tulowitzki, in the on-deck circle, failed to come to the plate and motion for Brad Hawpe to slide. Hawpe, trying to score from second on Ian Stewart’s single, was thrown out at the plate by Griffey.
“That doesn’t go up here, that doesn’t work,” Hurdle said. “Tulo is aware of it. You have to be there and let somebody know what’s happening. You have to take care of your teammates.”
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
