A matter of hours after the fact, Alex White showed why the Rockies claimed left-hander Wandy Rodriguez off waivers from the Astros.
Whether they land Rodriguez remains to be seen, but it was an attempt to protect the young arms on their pitching staff.
White, a rookie who turns 23 next week, was making his first-ever start in a Rockies uniform and first-ever appearance at Coors Field. The results were predictable enough. He jumped ahead of some hitters, fell behind others, allowed two home runs and walked away with a respectable effort.
Maybe it was appropriate that he racked up a no-decision in the Rockies’ 8-6 win Tuesday night over the Astros. White did some good things, including a nine-pitch scoreless first inning, but had his share of problems too.
He served up a solo home run to Carlos Lee in the second and a game-tying two-run shot to Jimmy Paredes in the sixth. After throwing first-pitch strikes to three of the first four hitters, he threw five to the next 16.
“Don’t try to justify anything,” said Rockies manager Jim Tracy, when asked what message he had given to White. “I’ve told him more than once: ‘Go out and pitch and just be Alex White.’ We’ll deal with what it is that comes our way.”
White, the Indians’ first-round draft choice in 2009, pitched 15-1/3 scoreless innings in his final three rehab outings at Double-A Tulsa before replacing Jason Hammel in the Rockies’ rotation. He’s considered the second-best prospect in the Ubaldo Jimenez trade behind left-hander Drew Pomeranz, who isn’t expected to pitch again in 2011 after undergoing an appendectomy on Saturday.
White pitched six innings, during which he allowed seven hits and five runs.
The game was tied at 3-3 in the fifth when Seth Smith unloaded his seventh home run of August, a two-run shot off the façade of the third deck in right field, to give the Rockies a 5-3 lead. After Jimmy Paredes tied with another two-run shot in the sixth, the Rockies took the lead on Carlos Gonzalez’s run-scoring single in the bottom of the inning.
Gonzalez’s RBI gave him at least one in his last eight games, a career high. One inning later, he showed off another of his five tools, streaking in for a diving catch on J.D. Martinez’s pop fly to end the inning as Jordan Schafer was crossing the plate with the would-be go-ahead run.
If CarGo was a likely hero, Jonathan Herrera was anything but. But it was Herrera who stepped up and hit his third home run — his first in 157 at-bats since May 12 — to give the Rockies an 8-6 lead in the seventh.
Footnotes. The Rockies on Tuesday acquired minor-league third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff from Oakland. Kouzmanoff, an Evergreen native, hit .221 with four homers and 17 RBIs with Oakland before being demoted to Triple-A Sacramento. He’s a .255 hitter in six major league seasons, with 82 home runs and 345 RBIs in 645 games. Kouzmanoff will report to Triple-A Colorado Springs. To make room on the roster for White, reliever Edgmer Escalona was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right rotator cuff strain.
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
