PHILADELPHIA — Jorge De La Rosa has been the prime exhibit of the Rockies’ rotation renaissance.
The left-hander entered Wednesday night’s game with a seven-game win streak, his nine victories since June 1 leading major-league pitchers.
But what happened to De La Rosa in a 7-0 loss to the Phillies was not pretty. With De La Rosa’s location on the fritz, the Phillies teed off for three home runs on three misplaced changeups, tying for the most homers ever hit off De La Rosa during a game.
J.A. Happ, the Phillies’ talented 26-year-old rookie pitcher, looked like a left-handed Greg Maddux, shackling the Rockies’ bats en route to a four-hit shutout that took a mere 2 hours, 18 minutes to complete.
“The first few innings he wasn’t really hitting his spots, but from then on he was spotting up,” Rockies center fielder Dexter Fowler, who managed a double in the third inning, said of Happ. “He would go in, he would go further in. Then he would go onto the black and then go further away.”
The combination of Happ and the Phillies’ offensive outburst ended the Rockies’ five-game winning streak and dropped them a half-game behind the San Francisco Giants in the National League wild-card race.
Happ’s 10 strikeouts were a career high. The shutout was his second this season. When he struck out Troy Tulowitzki to end the game, Citizens Bank Park rattled and rolled as Phillies fans cut loose.
“I think Happ pitched one of the best games we’ve had pitched against us all year long tonight,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. “He was putting his two-seamer and changeup right where he wanted to. He did a tremendous job of elevating the ball out of the zone with two strikes, and we were not laying off it.”
Philadelphia, as usual, piled on De La Rosa. In six career appearances against the Phillies, including four starts, De La Rosa is 0-3 with a 9.78 ERA. And he is 0-2 with a 15.12 ERA in two starts at Citizens Bank Park.
“I made some mistakes, and they hit me really good,” De La Rosa said with a shrug. “I think they know what’s coming.”
The last time De La Rosa was so bloodied by the longball was Aug. 23, 2006, when Cleveland hit three homers off him when he was pitching for Kansas City.
The culprit Wednesday was a transparent changeup.
“All of the changeups were flat and sitting over the middle of the plate,” said Tracy, adding that De La Rosa needs to know when to junk a pitch when it’s not working.
The first homer was a solo shot by Pedro Feliz in the second inning. No. 2 came moments later, a two-run missile to left field by Jimmy Rollins. The third homer came in the fifth inning when Jayson Werth deposited a pitch into the right-field seats for an opposite-field, three-run clincher.
Adding injury to insult, De La Rosa was hit in the forearm by a line drive up the middle by Carlos Ruiz in the fourth, but the arm was fine after the game.
Happ entered the game under a cloud of uncertainty, not sure whether he will be a starter or return to the bullpen when the Phillies activate Pedro Martinez. Happ certainly made a statement.
“I have a lot of confidence in myself,” he said after improving to 8-2 and lowering his ERA to 2.74. “Maybe some people don’t, for whatever reason, I don’t know. I feel good about the way it has gone.”
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
Looking ahead
TODAY: Rockies at Phillies, 11:05 a.m., MLB Network
Philadelphia is buzzing about left-hander Cliff Lee (8-9, 3.02 ERA), who pitched a complete game against the Giants in San Francisco last week in his Phillies debut. The former Indians ace allowed four hits and struck out six in a 5-1 victory. Last year’s American League Cy Young Award winner will be pitching for the first time in a Phillies uniform at Citizens Bank Park. Lee has never faced the Rockies outside of spring training. The Rockies will start right-hander Aaron Cook (10-3, 3.88), who has seven straight winning decisions. But he has struggled against the Phillies, going 1-4, 5.91 in eight games (seven starts). Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
Friday: Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano (7-4, 3.35 ERA) vs. Rockies’ Ubaldo Jimenez (8-9, 3.76), 7:10 p.m., FSN
Saturday: Cubs’ Ryan Dempster (5-5, 4.09) vs. Rockies’ Jason Marquis (12-7, 3.49), 6:10 p.m., FSN
Sunday: Cubs’ Randy Wells (8-4, 2.73) vs. Rockies’ Jason Hammel (6-6, 4.62), 1:10 p.m., FSN
Monday: Cubs’ Tom Gorzelanny (4-1, 3.38) vs. Rockies’ Jorge De La Rosa (9-8, 5.00), 6:40 p.m., FSN
