After seasons of lame market- ing slogans”Painting The Game Purple,” (ye gads) — the Rockies finally have found their catch phrase, or bat axiom.
Fish or Cut Bait.
Short, simple, suitable, strong.
Manager Jim Tracy used the expression Sunday morning either to motivate or admonish third baseman Ian Stewart, but, tonight, that should be the mantra for the entire team.
The Rockies begin an eight- game stand in LoDo.
Hit or Get Off the Top Spot.
The Rockies’ lead in the National League West has been squeezed to one game over the Giants.
Three Giants pitchers allowed three hits — three rotten, lousy singles! — in a 3-0 shutout and a 3-0 sweep of the weekend series in San Francisco. The Rockies have lost four straight for the first time.
Rox bottom: The team batting average has sunk to .233.
And Stewart, 0-for-3, can’t see the Mendoza Line from here — .073 batting average, .098 slugging percentage.
Stewart recently returned from a successful stint in Colorado Springs — “like Little League ball,” he said — and took up right where he left off with the Rockies — nowhere.
So Tracy said in his pregame talk that he didn’t “want Ian to hit eighth. But, unfortunately, he is not giving me much choice. We are getting to the point with him that it’s time for him to fish or cut bait.”
But Stewart is not alone. Following the dubious trip to Phoenix and San Fran, the Rockies have only one hitter above .300. (Alfredo Amezaga doesn’t count with four hits in 12 at-bats.)
Toddy Ballgame is batting .313. Many pitchers decided to throw Todd Helton away this season. Isn’t working. Many people in Denver wanted to throw him out after last season. Wrong.
Troy Tulowitzki is way down to .248, and Carlos Gonzalez barely is up to .241. Seth Smith has slipped to .283, and Chris Iannetta’s two hits Sunday pulled him to .230.
The two veterans acquired in the offseason — Jose Lopez (on the bench so Stewart can play) and Ty Wigginton (on the disabled list) — are hitting .148 and .233.
The Rockies are wasting plate appearances but, more important, squandering outstanding starting pitching performances from Jorge De La Rosa (who permitted only three runs, yet lost his first decision in five), Jason Hammel (no runs in seven innings Thursday), Ubaldo Jimenez (one run in six Friday) and Clay Mortensen (two runs in six Saturday).
The Rox haven’t hit well, as a group or in pressure situations, but they got a great stretch from Tulowitzki and spurts from Smith, Dexter Fowler and Johnny Herrera to keep winning.
But they could have been no-hit four times this season and were in danger of becoming perfect-game victims for a disturbing period Sunday before Iannetta’s single to start the sixth.
The early hitting problem seemed postal (cold, rain, sleet, snow, maybe even dark of night) both at home and on the road because the Rockies hit extremely well in the spring training warmth (six position players higher than .330).
But, then, the Rockies went to Florida (in the heat) and were dripping into the ninth inning of the series opener hitless. They won the next night on six hits, then had just six more in the series finale. In Arizona, with the roof open, the Rockies produced a few more hits but only five runs in two losses.
It’s not the heat; it’s the futility.
How’s that taco deal going? The Rockies scored seven or more runs twice in their past 20 games.
The Rockies have the Mets and the Padres, both last in their divisions, arriving for six games, and play two more with the Giants, who could be in first place before then.
With 15 of 20 at home, time for the Rox to land some big ones.
The fish-bait adage was credited in print to a judge during a noteworthy case in the 1870s, and it apparently meant “do something or get out of the way.” Catch some fish or cut the bait off your line.
However, fisherman muttered on a bad day: “Fish, cut bait or go ashore.” On a boat, one could fish or cut up fish for bait for other fishermen, or a loser could row home.
In his play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” William Shakespeare wrote of archers: “Hold, or cut bowstrings.”
Wagon trains coming to Colorado for the “gold rush” were urged on by the motto “Pikes Peak or Bust.”
Tracy has that kind of attitude this season. He wants the Rockies playing in mid-October, or the season will be lost.
So the Rox can’t turn that April showing into May blowing of games (three consecutive walkoff defeats).
Carney Lansford replaced Don Baylor, now the batting coach in Arizona, to improve the Rockies’ hitters. Baylor’s Diamondbacks have a higher average than Lansford’s Rockies. Lansford has to put the Rox on beast mode at the plate.
Forget the ineffective “Let’s Get This Party Started” slogans of the past, and remember the main man’s maxim of Sunday.
Rox: Fish or Cut Bait.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
