DENVER — Ubaldo Jimenez's latest
victory came in miserable weather conditions.
Jimenez pitched through rain and
problems with his command to become baseball's first 12-game winner as
the Colorado Rockies beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-3 on Friday night in
an interleague game twice stalled by bad weather before being called
after six innings.
"That was a gutsy performance under
some very tough circumstances," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. "He
gutted out those six innings for us and gave us a chance to do for him
what he's been doing for us all year."
When it began raining heavily again,
officials delayed the game a second time after the sixth inning. After
waiting another 40 minutes, the game was called.
Jimenez (12-1) allowed a season-high
three runs and five hits in six innings, and his major league-low ERA
edged up to 1.16 from 0.93 in a game whose start was delayed 1 hour, 45
minutes because of heavy rain. He won his fifth straight since his only
loss of the season and remained unbeaten in five decisions at Coors
Field.
But the weather, Jimenez said,
prevented him from being at his best.
"It wasn't easy to be out there," he
said. "I didn't really have any of my pitches. Even my fastball, I was
trying to throw hard and I couldn't. The ball kept slipping out of my
fingers. But I was able to keep battling and the guys picked me up."
Ricky Romero (5-3) allowed four runs
and seven hits in five innings, including a tie-breaking home run by
Carlos Gonzalez in the fifth inning. The Rockies added another run in
the sixth on Seth Smith's sacrifice fly.
Colorado's Ryan Spilborghs had three
hits, including his fourth home run.
"Neither guy had their good stuff,"
Toronto manager Cito Gaston said. "Ricky had a couple of quick outs and
they scored three runs with two outs. I don't know if it was the mound
being flat or the two guys didn't have their stuff.
"It's unfortunate we have to play in
these conditions. I think the forecast is worse for tomorrow and we had
to get one of these in. We were unfortunate to end up on the short end
of this one."
The interleague meeting was the first
between the teams at Colorado in four years. The Blue Jays lead the
overall series 6-4 but have yet to win at Coors Field, having been swept
in their only previous trip here in 2006.
Jimenez struggled with his command,
particularly during the first several innings, when rain fell steadily.
He had nine three-ball counts, walked
four, two intentionally, and had to work out of a two-out bases-loaded
jam in the sixth, getting pinch-hitter Jeremy Reed to line out.
Lyle Overbay tripled with two outs in
the second, scoring Vernon Wells, who reached on a leadoff walk, and
Fred Lewis walked in the third ahead of Hill's ninth homer of the
season.
The Rockies went in front in the
fifth when Gonzalez connected for his ninth of the season, a solo shot
over the right-field wall that broke a 3-3 tie and helped snapped the
Rockies' season-high three game losing streak.
Spilborghs got the Rockies' first run
when he homered off Romero, driving an 0-2 offering over the right
field fence in the second inning. Miguel Olivo followed with a single
and scored on Clint Barmes' double.
In the fourth, Spilborghs doubled
with two outs and Olivo followed with an RBI single.
Notes
Rockies closer Huston Street,
on the 15-day DL with right shoulder inflammation, is set to be
re-evaluated by team doctors after pitching on successive nights for
Colorado Springs, the team's Triple-A affiliate. … Toronto RHP Scott
Richmond (right shoulder) went 5 2/3 innings in a rehab assignment with
Single-A Dunedin, picking up the win over Clearwater. … Spilborghs had
his third three-hit game of the season. … Hill's home run was
Toronto's 99th of the season, a major league high. … The
rain-shortened affair went in the books as Jimenez's third complete game
of the season.