As the Pirates come to Coors Field for a three-game set beginning tonight, the Rockies are awaiting word on injured center fielder Dexter Fowler. He underwent a precautionary MRI on his left knee this afternoon and is out for tonight’s game.
“He was moving around fine today, but we sent him for the MRI just to rule out anything that might be there that we can’t see with the naked eye,” manager Jim Tracy said this afternoon. “We are hopeful that in a day or so he will be just fine.”
Fowler bruised his left knee in the ninth inning of Monday night’s victory over the Cubs. The rookie collided with the center field wall after making a highlight-reel catch.
A member of the Rockies grounds crew said Fowler was lucky he collided with a part of the wall that is made of plywood, not concrete, as some other sections are.
Fowler is in the midst of one of his best stretches of the season, hitting .393 (11-for-28) during his current seven-game hit streak.
In other Rockies news, injured left-handed pitcher Jeff Francis threw off the mound for the first time since undergoing shoulder surgery for a torn labrum in February. Francis threw 15 pitches with the catcher standing a few feet in front of home plate and another 15 with the catcher in regular position behind the plate.
“It went very, very well,” Tracy said.
Francis is more than likely out for the rest of the season, but today’s development was encouraging.
Footnote: An extra tidbit from the cycle Troy Tulowitzki hit against the Cubs Monday night. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Tulowitzki is the first shortstop in major-league history to go 5-for-5 (or better) and have at least seven RBIs in the same game.
Tulowitzki completed the cycle with a seventh-inning triple, but some have questioned the scoring on the play, believing that because of a bobble by Cubs left fielder Alfonso Soriano and two poor relay throws, Tulowitzki should have been given only a double, with an advance to third on an error.
Tracy, however, thinks Tulo’s hit was a triple all the way.
“Yes, it was,” Tracy said. “There was a little slight bobble in left by Soriano, but I think it had more to do with the base runner. If you had seen an interruption in Tulo’s stride and he had then realized that the ball had been bobbled, and then (he advanced) to third base, then I think you have something in question. But he never broke stride.
“He ran from home to third base, uninterrupted. It was definitely a triple in my opinion, because they had a chance to throw him out with two good throws. They didn’t make it.”
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
