ATLANTA — A road trip that began without Glendon Rusch, and with Garrett Atkins’ filling a pinch-hitting role, featured another message in today’s lineup.
Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is not it, benched for swinging at a first pitch in his last at-bat Tuesday night. He grounded into a doubleplay in the 8-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves.
Tulowitzki isn’t the first to do this. But Hurdle has made an example of Tulowitzki before, sitting him earlier this season when he struggled offensively.
Hurdle said today that he re-visited the offensive staples with the club during a team meeting last Friday, which prompted the move with Tulowitzki.
“I don’t want to be a little-league manager and tell every guy who steps up there to take a strike,” Hurdle said. “But we need to be smarter with our at-bats.”
Tulowitzki has five hits in his last 19 at-bats, and is batting .286 this month. He was replaced in the lineup by Omar Quintanilla.
Tulowitzki said he was disappointed with today’s decision.
Atkins also will start at third base for the first time since Friday.
Hurdle talked in spring training about curbing his team’s appetite for swinging early in counts. And during the first week in Tucson, he installed rules to emphasize this, namely that a hitter could not swing at the first pitch if the previous hitter had.
That didn’t apply here, as Dexter Fowler walked in front of Tulowitzki.
A look at the lineups:
Rockies
CF Fowler
2B Barmes
1B Helton
RF Hawpe
LF Spilborghs
3B Atkins
C Torrealba
SS Quintanilla
LHP De La Rosa
Braves
2B Infante
SS Escobar
3B Jones
1B Prado
LF Diaz
RF Francouer
C Ross
CF Schafer
RHP Vazquez
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com.
