Pitchers seek to find early rhythm
Wright has been right, others have struggled so far
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(節錄)
Unfortunately, after Wright's strong start, the Rockies' game went the way
of so many of their games last season, when their bullpen set Major League
records with 39 relief losses and 34 blown saves. His 5-0 advantage turned
into an 8-7 squeaker as a series of prominent bullpen candidates watched
their window slip slightly toward shutting.
Chin-hui Tsao was the first of four pitchers auditioning for
the closer's role -- three at the big league level and one at Triple-A -- to
see action in Monday's early game. Tsao's stats looked innocent enough:
one inning, no hits, a strikeout, and two walks. But Hurdle made no bones
about it being a sub-par outing, calling it an example of "participation"
rather than the more laudable "progress."
"He threw too many pitches," Hurdle observed. "Too much time in
between pitches. There's that point of participating or making
progress. He more or less participated today. He was able to put a
zero up, but he's got work in front of him."
Brian Fuentes was far less impressive, giving up four runs in his one inning
of work. He yielded, in succession, a single, double, triple and homer, an
interesting bit of trivia when it comes to pitching for the cycle, but not
the kind of impression that one wants to make as the spring slowly slips
away. Fuentes has a tendency to underachieve in spring, and his 3.99 ERA in
three years as a Rockie earns him some gravitas, but he spent much of what he
earned with his 5.64 ERA season in 2004.
"He's not coming off a big year," Hurdle acknowledged. "He didn't finish up
strong by any means. I know he's put a lot of effort into it and he showed up
ready and he's in good shape, but there comes a point where you got to make
pitches."
Of the four potential closers, Eddie Gaillard drew the ninth-inning slot in
Monday's game, giving him a chance to show true closing stuff, despite the
fact that most of the Royals starters were out of the game by then. Gaillard
had given up three runs in 1 1/3 innings of work three days earlier, and he
didn't help his case Monday, yielding three more runs in just two-thirds of
an inning.
"Nobody wants to dig themselves a hole, and obviously the deeper you
get it, the harder it is to come out," Hurdle observed, noting that
a pitcher in Gaillard's position can't waste any opportunity to impress.
"It's the seventh of March, he only threw (13) innings last year. We need to
see him as often as we can. He needs some results. We've got three weeks to
look for some results."
There are not many men in the Rockies camp with the background to coast
through the spring on their laurels. The opportunities are there for an
unheralded youngster or a second-thought veteran to walk in through a
window still wide enough to accommodate the unexpected.
Enter Ryan Speier, the presumptive Triple-A closer, who took the mound in the
ninth with two outs after Gaillard let in three runs and put the tying run on
first with a free pass. Speier's response to jumping into an already sizzling
frying pan? A quick and authoritative strikeout to end the game and save the
day.
"He took care of business," Hurdle summed up.
And it's never too early for that.
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