Today could be “Sleeping Bag Night” at Petco Park. Tomorrow, perhaps “Caffeine Appreciation Night.” Sunday could become . . . well, Monday.
You know how the Padres and Rockies get.
Yes, it's them again. The Colorado Rockies are in town. Let the marathon begin. The last time these teams played, neither left the ballpark before last call at the Gaslamp, having played the equivalent of 2½ games with only one low score at the end.
Colorado 2, San Diego 1, 22 innings, 6 hours, 16 minutes.
SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
It's early morning April 18 as Padres pitcher Glendon Rusch strikes out to end a 22-inning, 2-1 loss to the Rockies.
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“The beauty of baseball is there is no clock,” said Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, “and we proved it.”
What's happened since, neither club much cares to think about, for both have endured lots more sleepless nights. Since leaving San Diego in the predawn hours of April 18, the Rockies have gone 7-13, sinking almost to the same depths of exasperation in the NL West standings as the Padres.
Difference is, Colorado is the defending National League champion, owing much to the fact that the Rockies beat San Diego out of a postseason berth Oct. 1. That one took only 13 innings.
Thus spurred, Colorado got to the World Series the hardest way any team has done it, winning 21 of 22 games for the pennant. But staying in baseball's most rarefied stratum is proving even more difficult, not unpredictably, because the Rockies have quickly gone back to their pre-pennant, poor-pitching ways.
Indeed, only a matter of months after nearly making it all the way to the mountaintop, the Rockies are struggling just to stay atop the little hill in the middle of the diamond. Before yesterday's exemplary performance by lefty Jorge de la Rosa in the Rockies' second straight victory over St. Louis, Colorado ranked next-to-last in the majors with the 5.47 ERA of its starters.
Referring to the lack of depth in the Colorado rotation, one Rocky Mountain News columnist solicited his readers for Mile High City versions of “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.” The winner was “Cook and Francis and take your chances,” although that's more clever and rhythmic than accurate. Jeff Francis is winless and hardly pitching like the team ace he started out being, either, walking five and needing 98 pitches to get through five innings in his most recent outing.
Over an 18-game stretch, the Rockies won just four games. The winning pitcher in all four was veteran right-hander Aaron Cook (5-1, 2.40 ERA), who basically has become the stopper of a staff that already has used 18 pitchers. Fittingly, he'll make his first start of the season against San Diego tonight in a matchup against Jake Peavy, who happened to be the Padres' starter for that 22-inning affair.
Cook already has beaten every other team in the division this year – as well as the high-scoring Chicago Cubs. Following yesterday's win, Hurdle was asked how he felt about facing Peavy again.
“How do you think the Padres feel about facing Aaron Cook?” Hurdle said. “We've got Cook going. I feel good about that.”
The rest of the Rockies' rotation? To this point, it's had about as much fun as the Padres' pummeled bullpen.
Over the first month, Francis posted a 5.01 ERA, Mark Redman a 7.43 ERA, Ubaldo Jimenez a 5.90 and Franklin Morales a 6.39. You remember the latter two, the rookies who were so dazzling in that freakish postseason run, but they were rookies nonetheless.
Morales' problems with command (17 walks in 25 1/3 innings) and loss of velocity over five starts were so profound the Rockies sent him back down the road to Colorado Springs, their Triple-A affiliate. With three rough outings in a row, Redman already is being replaced in the rotation by call-up Greg Reynolds, who will make his major league debut Sunday.
Provided, of course, they will have finished tomorrow's game by Sunday afternoon. Isn't that Phidippides Bobblehead Night?
Chris Jenkins: (619) 293-1267; chris.jenkins@uniontrib.com
