LOS ANGELES — It was late during spring training when Manuel Corpas got a verbal kick in the backside from catcher Yorvit Torrealba.
“He said, ‘Come on, let’s go, you’ve got to be more aggressive toward home plate,’ ” Corpas said Friday night. “I said, ‘OK, OK.’ So now I’m more aggressive and working faster. Now it’s like, ‘Get the ball and boom, go after them.’ ”
Corpas, who took over the Rockies’ closer role from Huston Street on Friday, will need that attitude if he’s going to thrive as he did in 2007 when he supplanted Brian Fuentes as closer and dominated in the postseason.
Manager Clint Hurdle, sticking with the dominant theme of the early season, said he made the change by doing “what’s best for the team at this stage.” Hurdle is also encouraged by what he saw from Corpas late in spring training and in the early going of the regular season.
“Other than one ball that was hit out of the ballpark (in a 7-5 loss to Philadelphia on Sunday) he’s looked good,” Hurdle said. “We have seen the velocity we need when he has good sink and good tilt to his breaking ball. Sometimes this is the thing that can light the fuse for him and it can rekindle and refocus things for Huston.”
Street’s role has been significantly altered, at least for now. Hurdle said Street will not necessarily be the set-up man. Instead, Hurdle will determine who to pitch in the eighth inning based on “who’s the best fit at the time.”
That means Jason Grilli, Alan Embree, Glendon Rusch or Street could work the seventh or the eighth.
Street, who was acquired from Oakland as part of the Matt Holliday trade, won the closer’s job in spring training. But he’s had a rocky start to the season.
He’s coming off back-to-back games in which he served up home runs. First there was a two-run, game-winning homer to Philadelphia’s Matt Stairs in Sunday’s loss, followed by a leadoff home run in the ninth to Derrek Lee in Colorado’s 5-2 victory at Chicago on Wednesday. Street followed the home run to Lee by giving up a walk and single, and was removed from the game for Grilli.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
