Rockies offense sputters in NY
By Thomas Harding / MLB.com
NEW YORK -- Colorado manager Clint Hurdle summed up the Rockies' road trip
Monday that took them out of National League playoff contention.
"There's no need to scoreboard-watch anymore," said Hurdle, who saw
next-to-nothing beside "Rockies" on the Shea Stadium board on Monday afternoon.
Rockies pitching prospect Chin-hui Tsao gave up seven runs in 5 2/3 innings,
but at least got the team's only hit against New York Mets starter Steve
Trachsel in an 8-0 loss in front of 23,856.
The Rockies absorbed a four-game sweep, which included two shutouts at the
Mets' hands, and finished the trip to Montreal and New York 1-6.
At 61-66 and riding a five-game losing streak, the Rockies' Wild Card chances
are gone barring a miraculous turnaround that would have to include some road
wins. Colorado dropped to 20-47 on the road and is in danger of finishing worse
than last season's 26-55 -- the worst road record in the history of the
11th-season franchise.
Tsao (2-1), in his rockiest game since being called up from Double-A Tulsa,
gave up a Mike Piazza two-run homer in the first inning and a Jason Phillips
two-run shot in the third, and finished with 10 hits and three walks to no
strikeouts.
Outside of Tsao's first Major League hit, a sixth-inning, two-out double,
Trachsel struck out just three, but had Rockies hitters knocking themselves
out before he even had to go to his formidable split-finger pitch.
Right before Tsao's hit, which sailed over the head of shallow-playing center
fielder Timo Perez, Tony Womack drew the ire of the Shea faithful and revealed t
he Rockies' desperation when he tried to bunt for a hit. Trachsel made the
play. Greg Norton originally was credited with a ninth-inning hit, but first
baseman Phillips wound up charged with an error for a low throw to Trachsel,
who covered the bag.
"He didn't make any mistakes," Rockies first baseman Todd Helton said of
Trachsel. "When he threw his fastball, it was down. We were usually out before he
even needed to get to the split."
But Monday was merely a capper on a road trip full of poor situational
pitching, mental errors and bad defense. The mistakes of this trip have
rankled Hurdle, who does not want his mostly young ballclub to roll back the
progress it made through the summer months.
If it means the Rockies have been exposed as a fake contender, so be it.
"I don't buy that, 'We've got to be better than this,' " Hurdle said. "The
league tells you how good you are. That's why we play 162, and that's a test
of a team. It's a pretty good thought process when they put this thing
together."
Players, especially those who have been around awhile, agree. Colorado's hope
now is to make the most of a nine-game homestand, the season's longest, which
starts Tuesday night against the Florida Marlins.
"We played terrible baseball," Helton said. "You've got to have pride about
what you do, how you do it."
Center fielder Preston Wilson, spared having to participate in the futility
because Hurdle gave him a rare day off, said the answer to the Rockies' road
struggles isn't in physics or meteorology. Leaving roomy Coors Field in
hitter-friendly altitude is not the problem. Leaving baseball sense at home is.
"You have to execute better on the road; at home, getting the final at-bat you
can overcome some [missed] chances," Wilson said. "It's just that simple. If
we took different guys with us on every road trip, you could say that, but
we've got the same guys that we go with at home.
Like pouring a suitcase into the washing machine at the end of a a trip,
Wilson dumped the laundry list of shortcomings.
"We have to play fundamental baseball, we can't make errors," he said. "We
have to put hitters away when we get them with two strikes -- we've given up
a lot of two-strike RBIs this road trip. We have to drive guys in when
they're on third base with less than two out.
"We can't let the key guy in their offensive lineup, like Piazza or
[Montreal's] Vladimir Guererro beat us, especially when there is a base
open. ... Make the guy who isn't the star beat you."
Tsao, who has given up first-inning home runs in three of his first five
starts, committed the last offense to join Jason Jennings and Denny Stark,
who were taken deep by Guerrero on game-winning blasts in Montreal. Tsao has
given up seven home runs since the call-up.
Piazza, whose 345 homers as a catcher is six fewer than Hall of Famer Carlton
Fisk's all-time record, let Tsao know one more time that despite the attention
he is getting for being baseball's first Taiwanese pitcher, on the mound he's
in a rough, new world.
"They definitely have a better eye for looking for strikes," the Taiwanese
Tsao said through an interpreter. "I'm trying to make my pitches much better
than I was in Double-A ball."
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