As the deadline for voting — including via Twitter and texting — for the final National League All-Star Game roster spot approached Friday afternoon, the Rockies invited fans to attend a gathering at a team sponsor restaurant to rally support for Troy Tulowitzki.
To his credit, Tulowitzki didn’t want any part of overt campaigning, and St. Louis starting pitcher Carlos Martinez turned out to be the choice.
A few hours later, Coors Field was jammed. The postgame fireworks show was loaded and set to go. But first there was a baseball game to be played, and Rockies fans — including many, young and old, wearing No. 2 Colorado jerseys — assumed they’d have a chance to watch Tulowitzki play in person.
After Friday night, only two more home games remained before the all-star break, a four-day respite from games for those not heading to Cincinnati.
Yet Tulowitzki, who hit .381 in June and had a career-high 21-game hitting streak going into Friday night, and who unquestionably is one of the elite players in the game, wasn’t in the lineup.
Sometimes the Rockies’ organizational policy seems to be not just maddening, but also tone-deaf.
Especially in the wake of Tulowitzki’s offseason hip labrum surgery, his occasional absence from the starting lineup is a familiar part of Walt Weiss’ standard operating procedure. This season it started early, in the sixth game, when he pinch hit and struck out in the ninth inning of a 6-5 April 12 loss at home to the Cubs.
We know it’s coming, but it’s still aggravating.
Tulowitzki had a three-run homer in the Rockies’ 11-3 win over Atlanta on Sunday, and he goes into the break hitting .313, with 10 homers and 49 RBIs.
“I feel like we’ve been on the same page with that,” Weiss said after the game. “During my time here, it’s been our priority, and Tulo’s been real upfront in communicating every few days about where he’s at. … I think it’s been somewhat of a factor, but he’s been healthy and strong and having a great year.”
Going into the break, Tulo- witzi has played in 79 of the Rockies’ 88 games, and quadriceps stiffness led to at least two of his absences from the box score. In six others, he came on as a pinch hitter. Two of his non-starts involved starting the other game in a doubleheader.
Yes, it’s “working” in the sense that Tulowitzi, injury-prone in recent seasons, hasn’t missed a string of three or more consecutive games in 2015.
The phrase “correlation does not imply causation” is for science, not baseball or sports journalism. So we are conditioned to accept that if “B” follows “A,” then “A” caused “B.”
“Walt’s the manager, and obviously, we talked about that in spring, that he was going to try and give me as many days (off) when he felt like I needed it as possible, and so far in this first half it’s worked,” Tulowitzki said Sunday. “I think if something’s working, you kind of stick with it, so I think that will be the plan.”
Among other things, this has bolstered his trade value, given that his injury problems in recent seasons plus his contract either did — or should have — given potential trading partners pause … or cause to stay away from acquiring him, period.
But this idea that a shortstop should be like, oh, an NHL goalie who gets predictable games off — Patrick Roy routinely played about 65-of-82 games in his prime — is as irksome as having a team with three of its four infielders in the All-Star Game at 10 games under .500 at the break.
(No. It’s not all pitching.)
After San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy made Tulowitzki an injury replacement Saturday, the Rockies shortstop will be making his fifth all-star appearance Tuesday, joining teammates Nolan Arenado and DJ LeMahieu on the NL roster.
He won’t get the night off.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
