Results tagged ‘ jorge de la rosa ’
Tabata, Bullpen, victorious in 14 inning walk-off
After 14 innings and five hours and 11 minutes, the Pittsburgh Pirates delivered a walk-off win in the bottom of the 14th inning to win, 4-3, at PNC Park during the early hours of Saturday.
Josh Rodriguez drew a walk off of Franklin Morales and Jose Tabata hit a double off the Roberto Clemente wall to score the winning run.
Since the run came after midnight, the win came on the 10th birthday of PNC Park.
Jose Tabata told Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, “I’m looking for one pitch. I’m thinking if he throws a fastball, I’ll [take] a good swing. When he threw the pitch, I swung the bat. I stayed with my approach, middle-away, and [you] see what happened.”
The Colorado Rockies took advantage of right-hander Ross Ohlendorf’s early struggles. After allowing a leadoff walk to Dexter Fowler and a single by Jonathan Herrera, Jason Giambi launched a three-home run into the right field seats. The Rockies quickly took a 3-0 lead.
That was the only run the Rockies would score through the 14 inning game.
Ohlendorf was pulled after 2.2 innings with right shoulder discomfort.
The Pirates bullpen, which consisted of Jeff Karstens, Mike Crotta, Jose Veras, Joel Hanrahan, Chris Resop and Garrett Olson, pitched 11.1 innings allowing six hits, no runs, seven walks and 12 strikeouts.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 11.1 scoreless innings by the Bucs bullpen was the longest by the club in a game since 1900.
Manager Clint Hurdle told Colin Dunlap of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “My goodness, Scoreless? That’s a good hitting team over there. Our guys stepped it up. Every single one of them. There will be a couple who won’t be able to go [Saturday].”
The Pirates tacked on a run each of the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings.
After back-to-back walks to Neil Walker and Andrew McCutchen by Jorge De La Rosa, Matt Diaz grounded to short in a 10 pitch at-bat, to score Walker and cut the lead, 3-1.
Jose Tabata hit his first home run of the season, as well as the first home run hit by a Bucco at PNC Park this year in the 5th inning.
Matt Belise walked both Lyle Overbay and Pedro Alvarez in the 6th, and Jason Jaramillo hit a RBI single to right field to tie the game at 3.
The Pirates showed their patience at the plate on Friday, after walking for a total of eight times.
The Rockies had plenty of chances during the late innings to score the go-ahead run. After Chris Resop allowed a lead-off double to Herrera, Carlos Gonzalez lined to shortstop. Troy Tulowitzki was intentionally walked and Jose Morales struck out for the second out. Seth Smith drew a walk to load the bases. Ty Wigginton hit a liner to third base but Pedro Alvarez made a spectacular play, diving for the ball and then threw from one knee to first baseman Lyle Overbay to end the inning.
The Pirates were out of bench players and only right-hander Evan Meek was left in the Pirates bullpen. It was reported that he was not available to pitch and even tried to convince the staff to let him warm up, if needed.
During the bottom of the 14th, and Josh Rodriguez on first base with two outs, Jose Tabata stepped up to the plate. Rockies Manager Jim Tracy received a lot of critism for not walking Tabata to get to Garrett Olson, who was on deck.
Although, it didn’t appear that way. Manager Clint Hurdle sent Andrew McCutchen to the on deck circle in hopes Tracy didn’t realize the batting order (There was a double switch in the 10th inning, so the pitcher was batting in the two hole).
It proved out to be the game winning play, as Jose Tabata hit a double off of the Roberto Clemente wall to score Josh Rodriguez and win in the 14th inning.
Colin Dunlap of the Post-Gazette asked Hurdle if it was a decoy to make Tracy think McCutchen was up next, “No, come on, why would we do that,” Hurdle said with a sly chuckle.
What was Manager Jim Tracy’s reasoning? “To walk him into scoring position … I know they have somebody over there that maybe takes a swing and not have to hit the ball very far at all to end up winning the game that way also,” he said.
An incredible ending for the Pirates on their first win at home this season.
Jeff Karstens, who pitched 3.1 innings after taking over after Ohlendorf was injured, told Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, “I don’t even think words can describe what we did tonight. Just guy after guy came out; the situation didn’t matter, they just kept pitching. We were able to get out of it.”
Hurdle added, “My goodness. That’s a good hitting team over there. Our guys stepped it up tonight, every single one.”
Pre-game news and notes 4/8: Rockies @ Pirates; Yates suffers another set back
The Pittsburgh Pirates (4-3) will face the Colorado Rockies (4-1) tonight at 7:05 PM/ET for the second of a four game series.
Right-hander Ross Ohlendorf will face Left-hander Jorge De LaRosa.
Ohlendorf is making his second start of the season tonight. He picked a no-decision against the Chicago Cubs on April 3rd. He allowed four runs on eight hits over six innings with four walks and three strikeouts.
De La Rosa will also be making his second start of the season. He picked up the win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday after pitching 5.1 shutout innings allowing just three hits with one walk and five strikeouts.
- Tonight marks the first time this season the Pirates have faced a starting lefty. The Bucs went 13-10 at PNC Park last season against a left-hander.
- Jose Tabata has had at least one hit in each of the first seven games. His seven game hitting streak in the longest in the majors.
- Neil Walker has hit safely in six of the first seven games this year. He also is tied in the National League with the most RBI –8.
- Rookie Mike Crotta has yet to surrender a hit or a run over his three appearances.
- Troy Tulowitki’s home run off Paul Maholm yesterday was just the second homer allowed by the Bucs pitching staff this season. That is tied with the San Francisco Giants for the fewest in the National League.
- Tonight is buc night at PNC Park. Although all the $1 tickets are sold out, you can still fill up on all popcorn, Pepsi and hot dogs for just one buck each.
News:
- Right-hand pitcher Tyler Yates is facing yet another setback. Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com reports that Yates has been diagnosed with a torn flexor tendon in his right elbow. The diagnosis came after a visit with Dr. James Andrews.
Yates had Tommy John Surgery back in 2009 and was pitching in his first spring this year since the recovery.
Langosch also reports that the Pirates will provide an update after being reexamined in six weeks.
- The Pirates, through the first five games of the season, have a team total of 50 strikeouts –the most in major league baseball.
Manager Clint Hurdle told Root Sports on Wednesday, “We’ve been doing too much of that. You know, you add fly balls and strikeouts together in account of soft outs. Tonight we had 17 soft outs. You get 27 in a game. It’s hard to score a lot of runs when you’re playing with 10 outs. The guys are aware of it. Just got to go a better job with two strikes. I think some of our problem is we’re still not aggressive enough in the count early. Taking a lot of pitches getting two strikes.”
- The Bucs will face their NL rivals, the Milwaukee Brewers, for a three game series that starts on Tuesday. Over the past several seasons there have been players plunked, words said and high emotions.
Andrew McCutchen told Rob Biertempfel of the Tribune, We know it’s going to be a battle. They’re thinking they can step all over us. We’re going to wake them up and tell them, ‘Hey, we’re not that team anymore.’
“We want to be that team that wakes everyone up. Then the next time they play us, they’ll know, ‘We’ve got to have our big-boy pants on.’ It’s up to us to do that.”
Rockies:
Dexter Fowler CF, Jonathan Herrera 2B, Carlos Gonzalez LF, Troy Tulowitzki SS, Todd Helton 1B, Jason Giambi 1B Seth Smith RF, Ty Wigginton 3B, Chris Iannetta C, Jorge de la Rosa LHP
*Helton was a late scratch.
Pirates:
Jose Tabata LF, Neil Walker 2B, Andrew McCutchen CF, Lyle Overbay 1B, Matt Diaz RF, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Jason Jaramillo C, Ronny Cedeno SS, Ross Ohlendorf RHP
Coonelly chats with Pirates fans
Pirates Frank Coonelly web chatted with fans on Thursday afternoon where he discussed: winter game plans, de la rosa rumors and evaluating player injuries before signing contracts. Here are several questions from the transcript. You can read the entire chat here.
As the Winter Meetings draw closer, are there any certain “game plans” you have going into them?
Coonelly: [General manager] Neal [Huntington] and his staff have been working hard all offseason on our game plan to improve the club for next season without trading away the outstanding talent in our Minor League system that has us and our fans excited about our future. As Neal has said, we are aggressively pursuing opportunities to upgrade our starting rotation. We are also exploring potential upgrades and/or platoon candidates for right field, first base and/or shortstop. As always, the Winter Meetings will bring additional inquiries from other clubs who are trying to acquire players to meet their needs. We are looking forward to having productive dialogue with both agents for free-agent players which we have targeted, as well as GMs of the other 29 clubs.
Frank, there are a lot of skeptics (media and blogs) that have said that an offer was never made to [Jorge] De La Rosa, or it wasn’t an offer worthy of proving the promise to spend on true talent. Can you clear up what happened and why he couldn’t be landed?
Coonelly: I can assure you that we did in fact make an offer to De La Rosa. It was an offer, in our judgment, that was reflective of Jorge’s market value, taking into account both his potential upside, but also the reality that he has started more than 25 games only once in his six-year career. We made the offer and engaged in the negotiations in an effort to sign De La Rosa and not in an effort to prove our skeptics wrong. Mr. De La Rosa accepted Colorado’s offer, which included, among other things, a player option for the third year worth $11 million. A pure player option such as that is a “heads the player wins, tales the club loses” situation that we would not entertain.
How do you evaluate players who are recovering from a significant injury? Can you require them to pass a physical and/or make the offer contingent on meeting certain physical standards once they report?
Coonelly: Great question. The short answer is that we use all available tools and resources to properly assess the player’s current health likelihood of remaining healthy over the term of a proposed contract. That exhaustive analysis includes: reviewing the player’s complete medical file and giving the player a complete medical examination prior to signing him to a contract. Even with this type of diligence, signing a player, particularly a pitcher, with a history of injuries is a substantial risk that must be factored into our analysis.
I also want to commend you on your deal with the Dodgers last season. I think both James McDonald and Andrew Lambo are great additions. What do you guys hope to get from McDonald?
Coonelly: we are very pleased with what we saw from both Andrew Lambo and James McDonald since we acquired them at the Trade Deadline. Andrew gave the Altoona Curve team a shot in the arm as it completed its campaign and march through the playoffs to secure the Eastern League championship. He has just wrapped up a solid Arizona Fall League season in which he tied for the league lead in RBIs with 23.
James McDonald, in a very short stint with us, showed the type of stuff that Neal and his staff thought could produce effective starts. The key for James in 2011 is to demonstrate that he has the strength, durability and consistency to start 32 to 34 games at a very high level. As a result, James has been working this offseason to get stronger and to demonstrate that he can be a middle- to top-of-the-rotation big league starter. Given the work ethic that we have seen from James thus far, we are confident that he can achieve the high end of that aspiration.
De La Rosa signs with Rockies
Jorge De La Rosa signed a to a two-year, $21.5 million contract with the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday pending a physical (Also a player option for 2013 that could bring his earnings to $32 million and a club option for 2014 that would make it $43 million).
The Pirates were aggressive trying to sign the free-agent pitcher and reportably made a competitive offer.
De La Rosa went 8-7 with a 4.22 ERA during the 2010 season.
Pirates aggressive to land a starting pitcher
The Pirates have not been wasting time this off season and have been attacking the free agency market early and aggressively. General Manager Neal Huntington said he wanted to sign at least one starting pitcher for the 2011 season.
“The market early is always aggressive in terms of asks and in terms of what players are looking for,” Huntington said. “Clubs are trying to go as low as we can possibly go. It’s the dance that happens every off-season, and I don’t think that this year is any different given the market.”
The Bucs have been linked to pitchers: Jorge De La Rosa, Jon Garland, Brandon Webb, Justin Duchscherer and Jeff Francis so far.
“We would love to add a starting pitcher, but we have to do so with intelligence,” Huntington said. “Throwing an extra year or throwing an extra X-number of millions of dollars at a guy just to get a guy done doesn’t make financial sense for anybody. Some have more flexibility to do it than others. We have to be smart about it. There are going to be times where we have to stretch. But we have to stretch for the right reasons and not just out of desperation to get a pitcher or get a player.”
It is a rather thin free-agent pitching market this winter. There are some other arms that the Pirates could go after: Carl Pavano, Javier Vazquez, and Kevin Millwood.
The Pirates can also get a starting pitcher by trades or from the Rule 5 draft. The Bucs need to be careful though, most times in trades teams want young prospects back in return. The Pirates could use their internal options to get a starter.
“We’ve got to take a look at our internal options and make sure we have full conviction that whoever we sign, if we sign somebody or trade for somebody and get that contract, that it’s going to be an upgrade from what we have,” Huntington said.
“Do we project them to make us better in 2011? That’s ultimately what is driving us. I know the very easy answer is that anyone can be better than who we had in 2010. But the reality is that you look at some of the ERA leaders in baseball this year, whether it’s the National League or American League, and there are a lot of guys in there that people didn’t think were going to be in there this year. Young players get better. They grow. Sometimes it happens quickly. Sometimes it happens after struggles.”
Jorge De La Rosa Pirates top target
The Pirates main focus this off season is pitching and their top target? Left-handed pitcher Jorge de la Rosa.
De La Rosa, 29, went 8-7 with a 4.22 ERA in 20 starts for the Colorado Rockies during the 2010 season.
The Pirates will have to fight for the lefty as The Rockies, Washington Nationals, New York Yankees, and Milwaukee Brewers are reportably interested in him as well.
In six seasons pitching in the National League, De La Rosa is 38-31 with a 4.80 ERA. He does average 8.7 strike outs per nine innings but the downside is his innings pitched per year. In 2009 De la rosa threw 185 innings but his second highest is just 130.
He will also come with a hefty price tag. De La Rosa has said he wants at least a four-year contract at 11 million per year.
According to Troy Kenck of the Denver Post:
“Teams are expected to begin meeting with De La Rosa’s reps today. Washington, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Rockies, Yankees among those with interest.”
Kristy Robinson
Recent Comments