Jorge De La Rosa turned his spring around with a strong performance Sunday afternoon, and the Rockies bats backed him up to go to 7-9 in Cactus League play. Facing a starter filled lineup save for left handed hitters Andre Ethier and James Loney, De La Rosa cruised through three innings of work on 33 pitches, running into trouble only once in the second before escaping by inducing an inning ending double play.
The Rockies starting 3-7 hitters, Seth Smith, Joe Koshansky, Troy Tulowitzki, Dan Ortmeier and Omar Quintanilla combined to go 10 for 23 (.435) with four walks and three doubles to drive the offense. The table setters helped a little too, Ryan Spilborghs homered and Scott Podsednik tripled and scored.
THE BIG QUESTION: Three of the NL West teams trotted out some of their questionable bottom of the rotation starter candidates on Sunday afternoon, and while San Francisco with Barry Zito's poor performance and Los Angeles with Eric Milton's meltdown didn't get positive answers, the Rockies did with De La Rosa. Which team is better situated for the season, though? The Dodgers still have plenty of other options to run through and the Giants have a... well he won a Cy Young once and went to a great school. Are the Rockies in bettter or worse shape looking at JDLR and Morales as the likely fills for those last two slots?
The smaller question: Why are we moving EY2 off second again?
WRAP RATING: Dodger dogs in a burrito? You bet