The Rockies fell to 66-78 on the year after being swept in San Diego on a sun drenched Sunday afternoon. The Rockies offense was once again shut down and Roy Oswalt's return did not go as planned.
Starter Chad Bettis pitched the best he has all year going three innings and allowing just two singles while striking out four. The plan was to limit Bettis' action today so that Roy Oswalt could make his return and throw a few innings. Bettis did his part and Oswalt was pitching fairly well before falling apart in the seventh.
In the seventh, with the Rockies nursing a 2-1 lead, the Padres loaded the bases with nobody out. Oswalt induced a shallow fly to right off the bat of Reymond Fuentes to record the first out, but he then walked pinch-hitter Jesus Guzman to allow the tying run to score for San Diego. With the score knotted at two, Weiss elected to bring on Wilton Lopez with one out and the bases juiced. However, Lopez allowed a bases clearing double to Nick Hundley, making the score 5-2, before working out of the inning. All five Padres runs were charged to Oswalt. Mitchell Boggs then pitched a scoreless eighth.
While the Rockies did have a 2-0 lead in this one, they never really felt in control. They got lone runs in the third and fourth innings as Michael Cuddyer and Jordan Pacheco both had RBI doubles, but they managed just two base runners the rest of the way, one of which was a single from Oswalt. The Rockies, who typically swing the bats well at PETCO, were held completely in check all series, including striking out 13 times today. Troy Tulowitzki and Nolan Arenado both went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
The lone bright spots? Josh Rutledge continues to swing a hot September bat as he went 2-for-3 with a walk. Michael Cuddyer still remains just two points out of the batting title lead. And Chad Bettis looked very good today. I'm not sure where exactly the Rockies want to put Bettis in the future, but a nice eighth and ninth combo could be Bettis and Brothers. Time will tell.
What's next for the Rockies? A three game set at horrorville, aka San Francisco. The action begins at 8:15 MT with Jhoulys Chacin (13-8 3.16) facing off against Tim Linecum (9-13 4.50)
Source: FanGraphs
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