CHICAGO — Briefly, there were signs of life. The Rockies pulled on their ski caps, pulled up their longjohns and headed out to the batting cage to stretch this morning. It was not ideal for limbering up — imagine clowns piling into a Volkswagen — but the Rockies were determined to make the best of it.
Then they came back to the clubhouse.
“It’s miserable out there,” first baseman Todd Helton told owner Dick Monfort. “It’s cold and wet.”
It only got worse, the Rockies spending the next three hours muffled by Ted Lilly as the Cubs drew their curtain on their home season with a raw, 4-0 victory at Wrigley Field.
Those in attendance nearly witnessed history, growing louder with each out as Lilly flirted with a no-hitter. When the Rockies weren’t blowing on their hands to ease the 35-degree chill, the left-hander had them chasing their tails. Only two balls were hit hard through the first 20 outs. The Rockies avoided the indignity of a no-hitter when Garrett Atkins hit a sharp groundball to left field in the seventh inning.
Lilly worked fast and changed speeds, bringing to mind images of White Sox starter Mark Buehrle. The Rockies were sitting fastball, and left unable to unload on changeups, some of which were center-cut over the plate. Lilly also found a rhythm with the plate umpire Andy Fletcher. He began to get the strike at the knees as the game progressed, leaving Rockies” players grumbling, beginning with Troy Tulowitzki to end the second.
Ubaldo Jimenez was everything that Lilly was not. Jimenez looked lonelier than one sock on the mound, cold and bewildered. With rain spitting, Jimenez had no feel at the point of release. That meant his splitter and fastball were, essentially, irrelevant. He walked six and hit a batter. It took 104 pitches to record 11 outs before he was mercifully yanked. A run scored on a bases-loaded walk and a throwing error by second baseman Jeff Baker.
That he only allowed three runs was a testament to five strikeouts, but Jimenez never seemed right.
A balk call in the fourth only threw Sea Breeze in the Rockies’ open wound. Already disappointed with the strike zone, manager Clint Hurdle had seen enough. He let first base umpire Tim McClelland have it before the top of the fifth inning. Hurdle was tossed for the 22nd time in his career. Moments later, Brad Hawpe was gone after arguing with Fletcher. Turns out, his exit was related to tightness in both hamstrings.
Anger, injury and ineffectiveness – that pretty much summed up a day more suited for polar bears. And apparently Cubs.
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com.
