Padres 3, Rockies 1: Alex White Makes Strong Debut, Rockies Lose Fifth Straight

After losing Tuesday night for the fifth game in a row, the 2012 season is looking more and more like a bridge to the future. That shifts the ultimate goal from winning to the identification of key young players and the development of those players. In that vein, tonight's game at Petco Park could be seen as a success.

Alex White was brutal in 2011 with Colorado, but his 2012 debut was quite good. In fact, his 57 game score comes in as the 7th best starting pitching performance of the Rockies' first 29 games. Juan Nicasio (April 8, 66), Jeremy Guthrie (April 22, 66), Drew Pomeranz (May 2, 63 and April 21, 58), Jhoulys Chacin (April 20, 62) and Jamie Moyer (April 17, 60) were better.

White struck out six, allowed six hits and had a 10:4 GO/AO ratio. He allowed two runs, both thanks to Will Venable slashing extra base hits down the left field line. He tripled in the first and scored on a Yonder Alonso single, the doubled home Jason Bartlett in the fifth, one of two Padres to reach via the walk off White.

The Rockies offense continues to have issues in California following long homestands. Jordan Pacheco doubled off Cameron Maybin's glove in the first inning and scored on a Todd Helton single, which ended up being Colorado's only run. They threatened in further in the first, but Ramon Hernandez fouled out with the bases loaded. Their sixth inning was promising as well, with a walk, lineout-double-play, line-drive-single, walk and a strikeout yielding nothing.

It was a bad game once again. And though it was against the Padres at Petco Park, at least the Rockies have something to build off of with Alex White.

WPA Heroes:

Troy Tulowitzki (+.095) - 2-for-3, BB.
Todd Helton (+.062) - 1-for-3, RBI, BB
Matt Reynolds (+.052) - 0.1 IP, K.

WPA Zeroes:

Ramon Hernandez (-.159) - 0-for-3, BB.
Carlos Gonzalez (-.123) - 0-for-4, R, BB, K.
Jordan Pacheco (-.104) - 2-for-5, K.

Row Call

ES46NE10, The Lodo Magic Man, WanderingRoxFan, prettyinpurple, Charlie77, papality, Paleface Destro, free7694, nodakroxfan, holly96, Junction Rox, steakman, RMC7511, SDcat09, Rox the Casbah, DAWNMARIE01, wolf213, Nickmembrez, RockyMountianWay, The Toddfather's Goatee, butterfly, Rafael Rojas Cremonesi, Roxman4ever, CentralCaliRox, Rosenort, The Fanimal, idj2, theshiva, Oldfoagie, black_knight101, kbrick, RhodeIslandRoxfan, WalkInRight, JWhite, rockiesfan3317, roxintober, zmiko, Chrysicat, Cowman3340, RdRnnr, purplesocks, TedWilliams'Head, blake street beer, BikeChess, MCDallas, TuloRocks, Funabashi, Andrew T. Fisher, sasperilla_pete, Rutabaga
Total Users: 50
Total Posts: 1785
Total Threads: 2