Memo to Dante Bichette, who’ll be honored Monday night at Coors Field: The ballpark hasn’t changed a bit, but you won’t even recognize the game they play there.
The Blake Street Bombers are ancient history. Today’s Rockies win with starting pitching. Yes, even in LoDo, where the thud of flyballs dying on the warning track is drowned out by the hum of the humidor.
What do you mean Aaron Cook is struggling? Not anymore. Not after pitching a complete game in Saturday’s doubleheader nightcap against the Florida Marlins. Cook allowed five hits as the Rockies won 8-1 to salvage a split.
Before Cook, there was Ricky Nolasco, who brought the Ballpark Formerly Known as Coors Canaveral to its knees in the opener, allowing one run in eight innings and striking out nine in a 4-1 Marlins win.
Florida didn’t have a single extra-base hit in the second game. Nothing unusual there. The Rockies didn’t have one in the first game or, for that matter, in their previous game at Coors Field, a 5-0 loss to the New York Mets.
If you’ve misplaced your scorecard, there have been two shutouts in the Rockies’ first eight home games. Five times the losing team has scored two runs or fewer. If only the Broncos could play defense like
Coors Field.
“It’s different,” said Cook, when asked about pitching in Denver compared to years ago. “The team really feeds off the demeanor of the starting pitcher. You can go out there with confidence and attack the strike zone and get ahead early. I love pitching here, I embrace it.”
The win was the 32nd of Cook’s career at Coors Field, making him the winningest pitcher in the 16-year history of the ballpark. But let’s not talk back in the day. Let’s talk here and now.
Cook is 1-2 with a 5.01 ERA. Now for the numbers within the numbers: He’s 0-2, 9.72 on the road; 1-0, 2.40 at home. And he isn’t alone. The Rockies staff is 4-6, 4.36 on the road; 5-3, 2.65 at Coors Field.
Of course, it helped that Cook finally rediscovered the release point on his trademark sinker after being so frustrated that he dug out video from the vault of his earliest games in the big leagues.
“What a difference from game one,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. “Obviously, that was vintage Aaron Cook. His sinker tonight … it was Aaron Cook-like.”
The Rockies got all the runs they would need with a two-run first inning against Nate Robertson. Dexter Fowler, who had three hits, doubled and scored when Marlins catcher John Baker threw the ball into left field as Fowler stole third. Melvin Mora followed with a run-scoring triple before the Rockies broke it open two innings later on Miguel Olivo’s 100th career home run, a three-run shot to straightaway center field.
There were no such fireworks in the opener as Nolasco, relying on a fastball and late-breaking slider, mowed the Rockies down to improve his career record against Colorado to 4-0, 2.27. Yes, even Nolasco enjoys pitching at Coors Field.
“I like pitching in this ballpark,” he said. “You have to be real careful. It’s not like you don’t in any others, but here you really have to focus, especially with that lineup over there. I like the stadium, I like the atmosphere, I like the city. I like being here.”
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
