What right-hander Aaron Cook has accomplished cannot be overstated for a Rockies rotation beset with problems. Entering Sunday, their starters ranked 14th in the league with a 5.43 ERA. Take away Cook's outings, and the other starters are 4-10 with a 6.40 ERA. The Rockies are 6-1 in games started by Cook and 6-18 in games started by anyone else.
Not only is Cook the only starter to win since Franklin Morales' victory April 18, but Cook is 5-1 with a 2.40 ERA, has won five consecutive starts and has made five starts after a Rockies defeat and the Rockies have won each of those games. Left-hander Morales, the fifth starter at the outset of the season, was optioned to Triple-A Colorado Springs last week, making an initial stop at extended spring training in Tucson to work in a relaxed setting one-on-one with roving pitching coordinator Jim Wright.
Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, who takes the mound Monday, showed positive signs in his last start but has worked six innings only once in six starts.
Left-hander Mark Redman was skipped this turn through the rotation due to an off day last week. A calamitous outing April 26 at Los Angeles -- he gave up 10 runs in the first -- left him with a 7.43 ERA as a starter, but that was also the only start Redman pitched six innings.
Left-hander Jorge De La Rosa was roughed up Saturday, lasting four innings in his Rockies debut, and lefty Jeff Francis is 0-3 with a 5.26 ERA in six starts, five of which the Rockies lost.
ROCKIES 7, DODGERS 2: Aaron Cook pitched 7 2/3 innings and won his fifth consecutive start, one short of his career high, as the Rockies avoided being swept in a series for the second time this year by the Dodgers -- that last happened in 2006 -- and ended Los Angeles' eight-game winning streak.
