The low point of the Rockies’ season? It may have been June 18, when word spread in the clubhouse that Troy Tulowitzki would miss up to six weeks with a broken bone in his left wrist.
“Without a doubt,” said Tulowitzki, when asked if the players were sensing doom. “If there’s a player in this locker room who would tell you they weren’t thinking that, they’d be lying to you. I think everybody felt that way.”
So what happened? The Rockies had won 13 out of 19 in Tulo’s absence going into Friday night’s game vs. the Padres, bringing to 16-7 their record without him in the lineup.
“To play the way we’re playing is special,” Tulowitzki said. “I don’t think too many teams could face adversity like this and still really thrive on it. It’s going to be huge when I come back to realize that, hey, ‘we did this without him.’ “
How well are the Rockies playing in Tulo’s absence? He’s concerned about detracting from the team’s momentum.
“When I come back, throwing a different guy in there when they’re so hot could almost go in the wrong direction,” he said. “Hopefully it doesn’t, but, at the same time, everybody who thinks we’re going to be some unbelievable team when I come back, that might not be the case.”
First things first.
Closer-by-committee, meet first baseman-by-committee. With Todd Helton on the disabled list, the list of candidates to play first includes Jason Giambi, Brad Hawpe, Melvin Mora, Brad Eldred and Chris Iannetta.
Rockies manager Jim Tracy is looking for flexibility at the position; hence, Hawpe and Iannetta taking groundballs before Friday’s game.
“It’s a medley of guys over there,” Tracy said.
Giambi figures to get the bulk of the playing time with Helton gone, but not all of it. At 39, Giambi isn’t an everyday player, even for a week or two.
“We can’t overdo it,” Tracy said. “If we do that and start breaking him down, we’re going to end up losing a very productive guy off our bench.”
Footnotes.
Rockies pitchers are second in the league with five complete games, two fewer than Roy Halladay. . . . Tracy, on the impact former Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba has had on the Padres’ pitchers, who led the major leagues with a 3.11 ERA through Thursday: “There’s a part of me that says it’s not a coincidence. He’s a presence back there. He has a great understanding, a great feel for pitching.”
