MILWAUKEE — Gold Glove second baseman DJ LeMahieu was the right man in the right place at the right time.
Tuesday night, in the sixth inning of the Rockies’ 5-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, LeMahieu lined up in a shifted infield, positioning himself behind the second-base bag, shaded toward shortstop. Milwaukee’s Khris Davis blistered a grounder up the middle on the shortstop side, but LeMahieu made a diving stop and threw out Davis by half a step.
More than ever before, major-league teams are using analytics to improve their defense by moving fielders around the diamond in order to exploit the tendencies of opposing batters.
“It was something I asked our front office about this winter,” manager Walt Weiss said before Wednesday night’s game. “It was something I wanted to dig into a little bit more on the defensive stuff. They provided some real good information, so we aren’t afraid to go to it. The key was making sure our guys were comfortable doing it on the field.”
The Rockies practiced various shifts during spring training, but finding a real comfort level is going to take more time.
“It takes a lot of getting used to, absolutely,” two-time Gold Glove third baseman Nolan Arenado said. “From being a little kid up to now, it was all instinct for me when I went out on the field. There was always movement and shifting against different hitters, but it wasn’t a drastic as it is now.”
Arenado and LeMahieu both said that throwing the ball on target from a different spot in the infield presents the biggest challenge.
“It was really uncomfortable during spring, but the more reps I take in the six hole (shortstop) or behind second base, the more confident I am,” Arenado said. “The throw is so different. I was fielding a ball at short and I had to pause for a moment before I threw. It was like, ‘Wait a second, what am I doing?’ Luckily, I made a good throw. But it’s definitely weird, and a little funky.”
Put me in, Coach. First baseman Justin Morneau was not in the original starting lineup for Wednesday’s game. That changed quickly after Morneau took some swings in the batting cage.
“I felt really good, so I talked my way into the lineup,” he said. “I want to be out there to help us get a sweep, hopefully.”
Wilin Rosario was originally going to get his first start of the season at first, but he was scratched.
“I just wanted to make sure that Justin didn’t have any concussion-type symptoms and that his neck was fine, ” Weiss said. “He’s a lot better than what I thought he would (be) today.”
Morneau left Tuesday night’s game for precautionary reasons in the eighth inning after getting hit by the baseball in the neck as he dived back into third base an inning earlier. He had a large scrape on his chin. The first baseman has a history of concussions that nearly ended his career when he was with the Twins, and he also underwent surgery in the summer of 2011 to remove a herniated disc fragment from his neck.
Former Rockie dies. The wife of former Rockies pitcher Jose Capellan said he has died at age 34. His wife, Patricia Capellan, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she’s still waiting for autopsy results to find out exactly what happened. Capellan died in his house in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Capellan pitched five seasons in the majors with Atlanta, Milwaukee, Detroit and Colorado. He pitched two innings in one game for the Rockies in 2008.
Looking ahead
Thursday: Off
Friday: Cubs’ Travis Wood (9-13 ERA, 5.03 in 2014) at Rockies’ Tyler Matzek (6-11, 4.05 in 2014), 2:10 p.m., ROOT
Saturday: Cubs’ Jason Hammel (2-6, 4.26 in 2014) at Rockies’ Kyle Kendrick (1-0, 0.00 in 2015), 6:10 p.m., ROOT
Sunday: Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks (7-2, 2.46 in 2014) at Rockies’ Jordan Lyles (1-0, 3.00 in 2015), 2:10 p.m., ROOT
