By Sam Bush
The Phillies discovered yesterday what they are like when on Ryan Howard performs with the bat.
Howard kept up his torrid hitting at Coors Field, lining a solo homer in the fifth. He is hitting .395 over his last nine games at the hitter-friendly field.
”He’s just on a roll as far as good contact and good swings,” Philly manager Ryne Sandberg said. ”It was good to see it against a left-handed pitcher.”
But Michael McKenry hit a two-run homer and De La Rosa etched his name into the Colorado record books as the Rockies beat the Phillies 7-3.
De La Rosa fanned Freddy Galvis in the fourth for his 774th strikeout in a Rockies uniform, moving past good friend Ubaldo Jimenez, who now is with Baltimore.
That made De La Rosa’s erratic outing a little more palatable. De La Rosa struck out five in 4 1-3 innings before being pulled forChristian Bergman (2-0), who got a pair of flyouts in the fifth.
”It was a bad outing for me,” said De La Rosa, who threw 108 pitches. ”But it’s always good when you break a record.”a
Troy Tulowitzki added a two-run single for the Rockies andBrandon Barnes, recently called up from Triple-A Albuquerque, had four hits.
Jerome Williams (3-4) gave up five runs over five innings in his first start against Colorado in 10 years. He became the third pitcher to go more than a decade between starts against the Rockies, joining Tim Wakefield and Pedro Martinez, according to STATS.
”It’s kind of strange. It makes you feel a little old,” Williams said.
With the four-game split, Philly remained stuck on 99 wins versus Colorado. No team has won 100 games against the Rockies outside of the NL West, a feat the Phillies can achieve in a week at Citizens Bank Park.
