Welcome To The 2012 Rockies, Jorge

The Rockies lost to the Giants 9-2 in an ugly game today. The game completes a sweep by the Giants that was characterized by total domination.

Bunting is for fools. Image:

Today also marked the return of starting pitcher Jorge De La Rosa, and it was a struggle. Pablo Sandoval hit the second of three home runs in the last 24 hours in the first inning, but DLR escaped unscathed otherwise. After he worked an uneventful 2nd inning, he got a taste of life on the Rockies in the 3rd inning. With 2 outs and Angel Pagan on second, he got Sandoval to pop up weakly to 1st base. With the usual suspects still injured, it was Jordan Pacheco Tyler Colvin Matt McBride Wilin Rosario who was there to snare the ball and end the inning. He didn’t. Whether it was the ball spinning the other way, where he was on the field, or the blustery San Francisco wind, something threw Rosario off and his desperate lunge as the ball smacked the infield dirt was unsuccessful. That play scored one and led to a second unearned run and may or may not have sabotaged De La Rosa’s rhythm.

It would not be fair to blame De La Rosa’s teammates for his issues in the 4th inning. It was a messy combination of Giants’ hits, suspect defense and a crucial wild pitch that led to his exit and then the home team piling on with Edgmer Escalona on the mound. Even with an ugly stat line, De La Rosa’s pitches showed some life and he did make the pitches he needed to get out of bad situations (prior to the 4th inning).

On the plus side, after he could not get a sacrifice bunt down, he whacked an RBI single up the middle. So he had that going for him.

And while it is not fair to blame his struggles on the defense, it still must be mentioned. The last time Jorge De La Rosa took the mound the Rockies were a .500 team that was still on the fringe of contention. He had a competent catcher behind the plate defensively in Chris Iannetta as opposed to a guy who makes “spot starter” a strained term. With the exception of Jose Lopez, he had professional fielders behind him who were probably at least playing their natural position. It was still a challenge in the sense that pitching in the Major Leagues always is, but it probably did not feel like it was under such extenuating circumstances. Even if he had his absolute best stuff today it would have been a challenge, especially since he needed to pitch to contact rather than trying to be a hero and trying to strike out 10.

Even if you work hard and force yourself to extract some positives from his outing today, everybody involved would surely admit that they will hope to see things go much better when De La Rosa takes the mound again.