So here’s the situation: The Rockies load the bases with one out in the fourth Sunday against Randy Wolf, the Brewers’ crafty left-hander.
Yes, I know you think there’s some kind of sportswriters union rule that every left-hander must be crafty, but actually that rule was abolished when the Rocks called up Franklin Morales. More on that in a minute.
Wolf is, in fact, crafty, or at least the Rocks make him look that way.
Jim Tracy’s boys are already down 3-1, which, a little more than an hour later, will be the final score. They don’t know this, of course, but they do know they’re behind, their offense is sputtering and they may not see another scoring opportunity like this for the rest of the game (which they don’t).
Unfortunately, the next batter is starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez. Jimenez does not have a hit this year. He batted .104 last year. The one thing you don’t want is an inning-ending, hope-crushing, bang-your-head-slowly double play. If he strikes out, fine, just let at least one actual hitter take a shot with the bases loaded.
I’m yelling at the TV over the hum of the exercise bike.
“Ubaldo! Don’t swing! Bat on your shoulder! Ubaldo! Do you hear me?”
He takes strike one. “Yes! Bat on your shoulder! Good job!”
On Wolf’s second pitch, Jimenez swings and bounces a double- play ball to second base. Brewers shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt takes the relay from Rickie Weeks, writes a postcard home, stamps it, mails it, and throws on to first to end the inning.
Afterward, Tracy will say he gave no thought to giving Jimenez the take sign throughout his at-bat. And I will say, why not? Is this one of baseball’s silly unwritten rules?
Bench coach Tom Runnells will tell Root Sports’ Tracy Ringolsby, “You hate to ask the guy to strike out, but more times than not you put the ball in play, it’s going to be a double play.”
So, why do you hate to ask the guy to strike out? What, it’s going to ruin his average? Jimenez is batting .000. It’s still all about team, right?
Yes, Jason Hammel hit a home run the other night. This was the first homer by a Rockies pitcher in seven years. So, fine, if you’re not about to blow up your best threat of the day, let Ubaldo take a shot. But this was just dumb, and Runnells seemed to know it.
Meanwhile, with the bullpen in free fall, the Rocks finally gave up their uncrafty left-hander, trading Morales to Boston last week for a player to be named or cash. This was an unhappy ending to a long courtship. The Rocks signed him 8 1/2 years ago, when he was 16, and raised him from a baseball pup. When they lost three-fifths of their starting rotation in the middle of 2007, he and Jimenez came up and helped them reach the World Series.
A little more than a year ago, with Huston Street nursing a sore shoulder, Morales broke camp as their closer. You don’t give up on power left-handers without plenty of angst, but the Rocks grew increasingly frustrated with Morales’ apparent inability to retain information from one appearance to the next. He would accept instruction to correct a flaw, then go right back to doing it the wrong way the next time.
Still, if the club had any remaining options on him, it might well have sent him down. He is still only 25. Instead, the club had no choice but to trade or cut him.
That’s the reason Rex Brothers, another power left-hander, wasn’t called up to replace him. Hemmed in by a lack of minor-league options for Morales, Felipe Paulino and even Jimenez, the Rocks are increasingly careful about using them up. If they called up Brothers, they thought they might have to option him out a week later to make room for the sixth starter they will need Saturday.
Instead, they called up Matt Daley, who had already been optioned out at the end of spring training and could be sent down again without penalty. As it turned out, Paulino sealed his own fate by turning a win into a loss Friday night. Designating him for assignment opened the roster spot for sixth starter Greg Reynolds. When the Rocks go back to five, expect Brothers to join them as the second lefty in the bullpen.
Almost lost in the discouraging sweep by the Brewers was Ubaldo’s eight-inning two-hitter. He may still be winless, but he looked a lot like the U-ball of old. If Dexter Fowler hits the cutoff man on Ryan Braun’s two-run triple, Jimenez gives up just the two runs.
Now, if he would only listen when I’m yelling at the TV, he might just get that win.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or
