De La Rosa locates his game in victory
Rockies end three-game losing streak, beating Cards 6-2
st. louis» Jorge De La Rosa is the closest thing the Rockies have to an ace. It’s his job to stop the bleeding and give his team a legitimate chance to win every fifth day, even against the best teams.
The veteran left-hander did his job well Saturday night as the Rockies beat the Cardinals 6-2 in front of a sellout crowd at Busch Stadium. The win snapped Colorado’s three-game losing streak.
“Yeah, this is my job, to give us an opportunity to win every time I pitch,” said De La Rosa, who improved to 8-4 in his career against St. Louis. “I just tried to keep us close, because I know we have a very good lineup.”
For a refreshing change of pace, there were no late-game collapses by Colorado’s bullpen and no injuries to report, just a crisp, wellplayed game by the Rockies.
De La Rosa pitched 6M innings, giving up two runs on seven hits. Displaying excellent command, he walked none and struck out four.
De La Rosa had not won in his last four starts, dating to July 5. In his previous two outings, he was roughed up for 12 earned runs in 9M innings. In his previous start, at Chicago on Monday, he threw three crisp, clean innings. Then it all fell apart in the fourth. He walked the first two batters, then gave up hits to five of seven batters. He never finished the inning, and his ERA rose to 5.03.
There was no meltdown Saturday night. Jhonny Peralta belted a solo, two-out homer in the fourth, and the Cardinals put two on in the fifth, but De La Rosa kept his composure. He set the Cardinals down in order in the sixth and was charged with a run in the seventh when he gave up a double to Jason Heyward and an RBI single to Stephen Piscotty.
“My command was way better tonight,” De La Rosa said. “I was able to get ahead of guys. I attacked their hitters, and (catcher Michael) McKenry called a really good game.”
De La Rosa was backed up by homers from Nolan Arenado and Ben Paulsen, who drove in three runs and bumped his average up to .289.
“Benny had a huge night for us,” manager Walt Weiss said. “I think we have been playing well offensively. (Michael) Wacha shut us down (Friday) night, but I think we’ve come into a tough place to play and hit the ball well.”
Arenado entered the night with just one homer and a .230 average since June 28. He made amends in the fourth inning, hitting a tworun homer to put Colorado in front 3-0. He turned on starter Lance Lynn’s 1-1, 91 mph fastball, sending it 417 feet to left field. It was Arenado’s 26th homer of the season.
Lynn was 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA against Colorado coming into the game, but the Rockies rang him up for four runs on seven hits in five innings.
The fourth had the possibility of turning into a big inning for the Rockies. De La Rosa’s single loaded the bases, but Lynn struck out Charlie Blackmon to end the threat.
Paulsen’s hits provided comfort. He launched a solo homer to lead off the sixth and added a tworun double in the seventh, extending Colorado’s lead to 6-1.
“I was just standing in there looking for fastballs,” Paulsen said. “They have thrown me a lot of fastballs the last few days, and I was just trying to hit good pitches.”
Colorado struck quickly against Lynn, with Blackmon leading off the game with a triple off the top of the wall in right-center and then scoring on Carlos Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly to the warning track in right.