Guthrie Still Shaky In Rockies Loss to Padres

Rockies 1, Padres 7

Maybe it’s time to start worrying about Jeremy Guthrie a little bit. When he was picked up in January, the thought was that he could be the ace while the young guys we have who all look to be future aces get ready for that role. But Guthrie’s not been much of an ace yet. He’s started three games so far this season and has allowed 15 earned runs in 17 1/3 innings. And it’s not like these are offensive powerhouse teams he’s struggling against. The Astros, Giants, and Padres are the teams who combined to score all those runs.

Guthrie is just allowing far too many baserunners. A real pro can control his traffic and keep runs from scoring no matter how many guys get on base, but Guthrie isn’t there yet. Plus, when you give up multiple doubles in an inning, somebody will score. It takes a pretty unique situation for a man on 2nd not to score when the next batter hits a double. And Guthrie gave up three in the FIRST INNING.

In the 4th, he gave up another double and a pair of singles. These, combined with yet another error by Troy Tulowitzki led to two more runs. That’s 4 errors for Tulo on the season, and that is really bad – even Yonder Alonso, scoring on the play, looked shocked. Guthrie did load the bases with 1 out on a hit-by-pitch after that and still managed to get out of the inning without any more runs scoring, so that’s worth noting. But when you’ve already allowed 5, it’s too little too late.

And what was the offense doing in the meantime? Well, nothing. Which is frustrating, because over the weekend I was so impressed by how they kept manufacturing runs late in the game, and there was no sign of that energy in this game. The only run was scored by Michael Cuddyer, who doubled and was driven in by a Tyler Colvin single. I’m really happy those guys are producing, especially Cuddy, who needs to be for the money we’re paying him, but we need more out of Tulo, Ramon Hernandez, Dexter Fowler, Todd Helton, Marco Scutaro, etc.

What we do not need is 4 forceouts in the first 3 innings. That’s a terrible thing. When you come to the plate with a man on base, the very least you can do is make sure that if an out is recorded, you’re the one who’s out. What a waste when someone is already on base and you spoil the lead runner and replace him on 1st. Terrible.

Let’s end on a positive note, though. I’m very encouraged by Colvin. Once Carlos Gonzalez is back from the dead, I want Colvin starting over Fowler, who hasn’t really been a whole lot more useful than he was in spring training. Of course, that’s probably a pipe dream. Fowler, who loves to tweet about purple Mondays, needs to recognize that fans are going to stop coming out on Mondays if this team always picks that day to play the worst possible baseball.

The series against the Padres continues today with Jamie Moyer taking his third try at becoming the oldest pitcher to win a game.

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