--Tampa Bay's interest in LHP Brian Fuentes picked up in light of the hamstring injury that forced Rays closer Troy Percival onto the disabled list. The Rays are looking for a left-hander to work late innings and to provide late-inning protection for Percival in their bid to claim a postseason bid for the first time ever.
--LHP Cedrick Bowers, whose career was sidelined for more than a year by injuries and has taken him to Japan and Korea, is finally getting a big-league opportunity. The 30-year-old Bowers, a fourth-round draft choice of Tampa Bay in 1996, was called up by the Rockies on Tuesday. Bowers opened the season in extended spring training, and he then joined Class AAA Colorado Springs, where he was 4-1 with a 2.97 ERA in 16 appearances, two starts. In his last seven appearances, he allowed one run and struck out 13 in 11 1/3 innings. --RHP Ryan Speier was sent to Class AAA Colorado Springs to make room for the call-up of LHP Cedrick Bowers. Speier was the victim of options. He and RHP Manny Corpas were the only relievers who had options remaining, so the Rockies sent Speier out to avoid losing someone on waivers.
--RHP Aaron Cook went 1-for-3 with a single in his first at-bat and a sacrifice bunt. He is hitting .265. Mike Hampton had the highest batting average for a Rockies pitcher with a minimum of 25 at-bats when he hit .344 in 2002. Cook has eight hits in his last 24 at-bats.
--CF Willy Taveras, who singled home the first run of the game and then stole second and third in the four-run fifth, developed soreness in his left quadriceps during that inning and came out of the game in favor of Scott Podsednik. He will be re-evaluated daily.
BY THE NUMBERS: 0 -- Wins for the Rockies on their six-game road trip to Kansas City and Detroit. It was the seven winless multi-city trip in franchise history. They were 0-7 in a trip to San Diego and san Francisco June 25-July 1, 1999. They were 0-6 in trips to Yankee Stadium and Tampa Bay June 8-13, 2004; San Francisco and Arizona Aug. 8-13, 2005, and the Mets and Milwaukee Aug. 18-24, 2002. They were 0-5 on trips to Texas and San Francisco July 2-6, 1997, and Los Angeles and Francisco Aug. 9-Sept. 3, 2003.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "He's a pretty good model of Ubaldo Jimenez. Remember, even (on Saturday) he had 118 pitches and didn't get through the sixth inning." -- Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, on Detroit RHP Justin Verlander.
