Lift from lefties ASAP
Lefties make up an estimated 10 to 15 percent of the population, but they make up 40 percent of the Rockies’ rotation. So far this season, that 40 percent has been a disappointment.
Rockies newcomer Brett Anderson, a southpaw who lost in his Coors Field debut Sunday, gives himself a C in the early going.
“My stuff hasn’t been very good, but I’ve competed and I’ve kept us in the game,” Anderson said after the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Rockies 5-3. “But the team is 0-2 in the games that I’ve pitched. You can’t give yourself a good grade when your team is 0-2when you’ve pitched.”
Anderson’s 4.50 ERA is quite a few ticks above his 3.81 career mark. But that’s better than fellow lefty Jorge De La Rosa, the Rockies’ opening-day starter who is 0-1 with an 8.31 ERA after two starts. De La Rosa, who won 16 games last year, has yet to pitch five innings in a game this season.
The Rockies have played only seven games, but with No. 1 righthander Jhoulys Chacin out for another month, the Rockies need the two lefties in their rotation to begin producing. De La Rosa, after all, is making $11 million this season, ranking second on the team to Troy Tulowitzki’s $16 million salary.
And the Rockies traded lefthander Drew Pomeranz to the Oakland A’s to acquire Anderson. So there’s a lot at stake here.
Anderson wasn’t terrible Sunday. He pitched six innings, allowing five runs and 10 hits. Two of those runs were unearned, the result of 2013 Gold Glove winner Nolan Arenado misplaying Paul Goldschmidt’s grounder downthe third-base line in the third inning. Anderson’s big mistake was throwing a misplaced slider to Mark Trumbo in the fifth inning, a pitch that Trumbo crushed 421 feet to left field. It was Trumbo’s fourth consecutive game with a home run, and it was his fifth homer this season.
“I thought Brett did a great job — six innings, three earned,” managerWaltWeiss said. “The Trumbo homer was the one that hurt a little bit. But I thought Brett did a great job. I have a lot of confidence when he’s on the mound. He’s got the ability to navigate a lineup and execute a game plan.”
The Rockies brought Anderson to Coors Field because he can procure groundball outs. Going forward, the Rockies would be thrilled to see Anderson pitching like Arizona lefty Wade Miley. He was excellent Sunday, tying a career high by pitching eight innings. He gave up two runs and seven hits, and his effective combination of a slider and fastball induced 19 groundball outs. He got the Rockies to hit into four double plays.
“He kept his fastball down really well,” said Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu, who grounded out three times, twice into double plays. “His slider is always his good pitch, and he was keeping that down too. He competed well like he always does. We just couldn’t get that rally off him.”
Miley improved to 7-0 with a 2.52 ERA in 10 games (nine starts) vs. the Rockies. He is 3-0 with a 3.38 ERA in four starts at Coors.
After Sunday’s game, Anderson tipped his cap to Miley, but the Rockies lefty wasn’t crazy about drawing comparisons to the Arizona lefty.
“I’m confident in myself and don’t really like to compare myself to too many people,” Anderson said. “When my stuff is good and I’m going good, I’m better than most people.”