Padres 5, Rockies 2: Gaudin burns Rockies brooms

by Andrew T. Fisher on May 31, 2009 4:38 PM MDT in Rockies Game Wraps

They say momentum goes only as far as the next day's pitching matchup, so it's unfortunate the Rockies ran into a pitcher at his absolute best today.

Chad Gaudin (2-3, 4.76) must be angry that the Rockies didn't take a flyer on him when he was released from Chicago last month. The red goatee (now neatly trimmed) struck out a season high nine, just two off his career high, in 6.1 stellar innings. He is now 1-0 with a 1.59 ERA against the Rockies this year and 1-3 with a 6.35 ERA against the rest of the league.

20 - 29

Pace: 66-96

Pythag W-L: 23-26

Last Year: 19-30

The two fateful pitches:

With two outs and runners on second and third in the third inning of a scoreless game, Adrian Gonzalez came up against Jorge de la Rosa (0-6, 5.43). Jim Tracy elected to be aggressive instead of walking the red hot slugger in favor of the ice cold Kevin Kouzmanoff. De la Rosa had struck out Gonzalez on a fastball up and away in the first, and Torrealba called for the same pitch on an 0-2 count. DLR missed his location, and Gonzalez gave the Padres a 3-0 lead that was all they needed. De la Rosa allowed four runs (all with two outs) on six hits in five innings.

In the fifth, the Rockies finally started to rally with consecutive singles by Troy Tulowitzki and Yorvit Torrealba. Jim Tracy again elected to be aggressive, calling for a double steal on a 3-2 pitch to pinch-hitter Seth Smith. Smith watched a fastball right down the middle for strike three and Tulo was easily cut down at third to kill the inning.

In both cases, Tracy called for aggressiveness, which implies confidence in his players' abilities. In both cases, their execution was abysmal. The failures at those two high leverage situations really seemed to be a gut punch they could not recover from.

WPA Heroes:
Yorvit Torrealba (.049), 2-for-4, 1 RBI
Brad Hawpe (.030) . 2-for-4, 1 run

WPA Zeroes:
Jorge de la Rosa (-.193), 5 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 5 K, 3 BB. 0-for-1
Todd Helton (-.125), 0-for-4
Matt Murton (-.079), 0-for-1

Quiet Star:
Joel Peralta gave the Rockies a chance by pitching a scoreless eighth and ninth, allowing one hit and one walk

Rowbot Roll Call

befizzle, TuLoRocks2008, butterfly, WolfMarauder, Rockie4Ever, fantasyfencing, pedalpusher, Mondogarage, Poseidon's Fist, walkoff59, wolf213, coolopotamous, Redhawk, Maris6161, Narcoleptico, Silverblood, wedge, AtkinsandTulofan, djmbluemoon, MohrPlease, Teekalong, RdRnnr all chatted about the game...and other things

WolfMarauder was the only centurion, with more than double the comments of anyone else.

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Comments

Gaudin

“Absolute best” IS the best way to put it.

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."
Jackie Robinson

http://www.geocities.com/by31lengths/Randompage2.html

by walkoff59 on May 31, 2009 4:52 PM MDT reply actions

The pitch to Smith....

Looked to me to be on the outside corner. Still…

I don’t know why they ever run Tulo. He gets awful jumps. In that situation, I think it’s a bad gamble, especially with a lefty at the plate.

Don’t know why they called for an 0-2 fastball to Gonzalez, especially since they’d thrown it there before. Fastball in or breaking ball away would have been better choices, IMO.

by jlikesrockies on May 31, 2009 5:25 PM MDT reply actions

I don't fault them for trying that pitch

A-Gone doesn’t have many holes, but that is one of them. DLR just didn’t execute it.

And while Smith’s pitch wasn’t down Centre Avenue, it was undeniably a strike right out of Gaudin’s hand – not a frame job or wide zone from the ump. Smith needed to offer at that, especially knowing two very slow runners were going on the pitch. He should have expanded his zone a little bit if anything.

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

by Andrew T. Fisher on May 31, 2009 5:32 PM MDT up reply actions

It looked to

me as though a hit and run was called for on the previous pitch to Smith as the runners were going and he fouled it off. The very next pitch both runners were going and Smith didn’t swing. This tells me that he missed a sign, or thought the 3-2 pitch was ball 4. Either way it hurt a lot.

"We made too many wrong mistakes." ~Yogi Berra
"The ballplayer who loses his head, who can't keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all." ~Lou Gehrig
JFK

by jrockies on May 31, 2009 5:29 PM MDT reply actions

Yeah

It doesn’t really matter if Smith missed the sign or not…it was definitely a strike. The fact that it was a hit and run really compounded the issue.

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

by Andrew T. Fisher on May 31, 2009 5:33 PM MDT up reply actions

I feel like a couple of runs could've been prevented

By having a real LF playing.

Matt Murton status: Freed
Garrett Atkins status: Not Traded
Clint Hurdle status: http://tinyurl.com/mo975h

by Andrew Martin on May 31, 2009 5:33 PM MDT reply actions

I think

a couple could have been produced if one of our other OFs were actually playing.

On the other hand 3 of the 5 came on a blast 6 rows behind where I was sitting. Stewart did make a relay throw with Tulo to get Gonzalez at the plate (he was trying to score from first). There was only one ball that I think he could have gotten to if he had run a little bit harder, or had more typical OF speed, but otherwise he didn’t cost us too much.

"We made too many wrong mistakes." ~Yogi Berra
"The ballplayer who loses his head, who can't keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all." ~Lou Gehrig
JFK

by jrockies on May 31, 2009 5:52 PM MDT up reply actions

lmao

These last few game threads I’ve been posting a ton.

by Greg Stanwood on May 31, 2009 6:03 PM MDT reply actions

Yeah...you had 173

The only person within 100 from you was me at 76. You’re going crazy

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

by Andrew T. Fisher on May 31, 2009 11:43 PM MDT up reply actions

Yesterday's graph was much prettier.

I can’t complain too much about a series win, but I’m really really ready to see more than two wins in a row.

by Justus on May 31, 2009 6:08 PM MDT reply actions

i think we are all ready

to see that as well lol

3 more wins for back to back on the Pens and a repeat Go Wings!!!

by TuLoRocks2008 on May 31, 2009 6:13 PM MDT up reply actions

I know many of us are excited about the managerial change

and I am willing to give it more time, but this team has the same problems as before and I think we all knew that. I really hope we don’t go hrough a period where we are getting some false hope and don’t make the necessary canges we need to.

By the way, 2 more HR’s for Gonzo today, I am starting to get real excited about him. Also Morales made a rehab start today and pitched decently.

It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

by smokinRox on May 31, 2009 7:20 PM MDT reply actions

I do feel a change

While some of the execution is still missing. Today’s loss was a little easier to stomach because it seemed like we were being aggresive. We lost games like this 5-0 a couple of weeks ago.

I don’t expect more than getting to .500 for the season and show improvement. Smith can’t take that pitch period we have had a lot of guys just not protect the plate enough with 2 strike counts. I though we were supposed to take the first strike not the third.

by Roxfan24 on May 31, 2009 9:09 PM MDT reply actions