Left-hander Jorge De La Rosa is pitching his way into the Rockies' plans for next year. They see him as a quality arm who can fit into the rotation behind Aaron Cook, Ubaldo Jimenez and Jeff Francis.
"I'd like to think he is on track to be back," said manager Clint Hurdle. "If you could have him in the fourth or fifth spot, that's a pretty solid rotation." Right now, he is pitching that way. He is 9-8 for the season, but in eight starts since he was given a final chance to prove he belonged in early August, De La Rosa is 4-2 with a 2.78 ERA and he has six quality starts -- minimum of six innings with three or fewer earned runs.
He allowed one run -- Adam Dunn's 38th home run -- in a 3-2 win against Arizona at Coors Field on Friday.
Expected to be dumped after giving up seven runs and retiring only five batters in a July 31 start at Florida, he was back in the first week of August because of a manpower shortage, and has given the Rockies little reason to think he should be taken out since.
He did have a couple of less than stellar efforts in his two previous starts, allowing four runs each time and failing to get through six innings either time. That added to the Rockies' attention to how De La Rosa handled the details on Friday.
That's why after he issued back-to-back two-out walks, on a total of nine pitches, to load the bases in the fourth and then went 3-0 to Chris Snyder, it caught Hurdle's attention when he came back with a called strike to Snyder and got out of the inning when third baseman Ian Stewart made a reaching grab of the line drive Snyder hit on the next pitch.
"The big thing was he got through that and finished strong," said Hurdle.
It was a real big thing, admitted De La Rosa, whose trademark in his early opportunities with Milwaukee and Kansas City in addition to the Rockies was showing signs of being able to dominate and then having an inning where the game fell apart.
That's why, De La Rosa said, the Snyder at-bat "was very important for me. I stayed relaxed and made the pitch. It was like I didn't have runners on base."
ROCKIES 3, DIAMONDBACKS 2: Closer Brian Fuentes withstood a ninth-inning scare Friday to convert his 16th consecutive save, and his 29th in 31 opportunities since returning to the closer role on April 26. Fuentes gave up a home run to Mark Reynolds, only the third run he has allowed in 28 2/3 innings his last 29 appearances, and then faced a bases-loaded, two-out situation, but struck out Chris Young. Jorge De La Rosa (9-8) raised his record to 4-2 in his last eight starts with his sixth quality start in that stretch. Chris Iannetta and Clint Barmes both homered.
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