SAN DIEGO — With a bat in hand, Ubaldo Jimenez is a dandelion. He can’t hit unless his childhood idol is pitching. He collected two hits against Pedro Martinez this season. Against everyone else, he’s 0-for-53.
But put a ball in his hand, and hide the women and children. He is overpowering and scary. Yet on a cool Saturday night, when his team needed him most, Jimenez was frighteningly ineffective, his lack of command preventing the Rockies from making up critical ground.
In the end, they lost 9-4 to the San Diego Padres, a team pushing harder for the first pick in the draft than a playoff spot.
It left the Rockies six games behind the forgiving Arizona Diamondbacks, a deficit that provides a puncher’s chance. This outing, however, will eat at their gut.
The Rockies knew by the third inning that the Diamondbacks had lost. They owned a 2-0 lead. Jimenez abruptly lost control of the steering wheel in the fourth inning, sending the car into the guardrail.
Two enduring snapshots defined the evening.
When Jimenez walked rookie Nick Hundley, the No. 8 hitter, on four straight pitches, he walked off the mound and shook his head in disgust. When he walked rookie pitcher Josh Geer, who was making his big-league debut, on four consecutive pitches, manager Clint Hurdle unfolded his arms and spun his back to the field.
As the fourth inning progressed, Jimenez began falling off to the first-base side and dropping his elbow below his shoulder. He was missing the zone by feet, not inches. In the end, his line explained the final score: 3 2/3 innings, the third shortest of his career, two hits, five walks and six runs.
Not unlike Aaron Cook, Jimenez has quietly been battling a slump. He went 2-3 with a 5.79 ERA this month. In many ways his performance was a reminder of how the Rockies fell into this deep of a division hole in the first place.
Their inability to pound the strike zone — along with abysmal clutch hitting — has kept the Rockies from meeting expectations. They are on pace for 550 walks after permitting a franchise-low 504 last season.
“It’s been huge that we have gotten better in the second half, but it has been one of the most disappointing aspects,” Hurdle said. “At one point and time this year, we led the league in double plays and (then) we fell off the map. When you don’t pitch well, you don’t turn double plays. Now they are starting to show up again because we have pitched better — shocker.”
Twice last week, the Rockies had an opportunity to shave the Diamondbacks’ lead to five games. Twice they whiffed.
The Rockies are no strangers to disbelief, practically patenting the emotion last September. But it never felt like this.
On a night when they desperately needed a win, disbelief came from stunning failure, not a crowning achievement.
