Arizona @ Colorado preview
Coors Field
Last Meeting ( Sep 10, 2010 ) Arizona 4, Colorado 13
Rodrigo Lopez and the Arizona Diamondbacks have a great deal on their respective plates on Saturday.
Lopez will be charged with slowing down Troy Tulowitzki, and the Diamondbacks will try to put a blemish on the impressive Cy Young Award resume of Ubaldo Jimenez and put an end to the Colorado Rockies’ eight-game winning streak in the second of a three-game set.
Tulowitzki homered twice and scored four times to help power Colorado to a 13-4 drubbing over Arizona in the series opener.
With the win, Colorado (77-64) moves within 2 1/2 games of the front-running San Diego Padres (79-61) and San Francisco Giants (80-62) in the NL West. The Rockies also remained 2 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the race for the wild card. San Francisco knocked off San Diego, 1-0, and Atlanta recorded an 8-6 triumph over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.
The red-hot Tulowitzki is 13-for-31 with eight homers and 15 RBIs during the winning streak and is batting .327 overall. He is just eight points behind league leader and teammate Carlos Gonzalez, who went hitless for the second straight game.
Todd Helton and Ryan Spilborghs each had two hits and two RBIs and the Rockies used a six-run third inning to knock out Diamondbacks starter Joe Saunders.
The offense made a winner of surging left-hander Jorge De La Rosa, who yielded just two runs and five hits in six frames and struck out a season-high 10 batters – his fifth career double-digit strikeout game and two shy of his all-time best. It was also the 10th consecutive start that the left-hander had allowed three runs or fewer.
The struggling Lopez (5-13, 5.21 ERA) will try to contain Tulowitzki and match Jimenez. However, Tulowitzki is 4-for-6 with a double and homer all-time against the right-hander and Jimenez is 3-1 this season in four starts against Arizona. In his first three outings, all wins, he allowed just two runs in 21 innings.
Furthermore, Lopez hasn’t won since the All-Star break, going 0-6 with a 6.96 ERA in 10 starts. His last win was July 8 against the Florida Marlins, and he has lost both starts this season to the Rockies, who have reached him for seven runs and 14 hits in 13 frames.
With the offense clicking, Jimenez (18-6, 2.79 ERA) seems to have a big advantage.
After all, the Rockies’ all-time single season leader in wins is tied for the league lead in victories with Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals and Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Jimenez entered his first All-Star Game with a 15-1 record and 2.20 ERA. He has gone just 3-5 since.
In his last performance, Labor Day against the Cincinnati Reds, Jimenez allowed four runs, six hits and six walks in six innings but had enough support to record a 10-6 triumph over Cincinnati. Prior to that, the 26-year-old was 0-4 with a 2.72 ERA in his previous five starts.