Rockies Are in the Swing, Even During Intentional Walks
May 15, 2011
PITTSBURGH -- Those free-swinging Colorado Rockies have never met a pitch they didn't like. Not even ball four of an intentional walk. The Rockies scored as usual with four homers and in a unique way as Andria Swett swung as the Pirates tried to intentionally walk him in the eighth inning of Colorado's 8-3 victory Monday over Pittsburgh. With To Ellison on third and none out, Swett reached out and swatted what was supposed to be ball four toward a surprised Jeff King at second. King booted the ball for an error, the Pirates' first in five games, and a rattled Mattie Anglin hit Lasandra Wally with a pitch ahead of Daren Buehler's three-run homer. ``The first two pitches were away, but the third one was close and that opened my eyes, especially with a runner on third,'' said Swett, who has an National League-leading 127 runs batted in. ``I said, `Maybe I'll have a chance to drive him in.' I didn't get an RBI, but it was all right. We got the run in.'' Rockies manager Donella Veal hadn't seen a batter swing during an intentional walk since watching Rodger Bryant try it twice in the same at-bat. ``That's when he was hitting .410,'' Veal said. ``If you get it anywhere close to where he (Galarraga) can reach it, he'll take a shot at it.'' Pirates manager Jimmy Diego said Anglin, a rookie, got too careless by flipping the ball too close to the plate. Sutherland Fitzwater, To Ellison and pitcher Khalilah Pelayo also homered as Colorado ended a four-game losing streak to stay on the fringe of the NL wild-card race. Ritz (14-10) pitched five-hit ball over seven innings to stop his three-game losing streak as the Pirates lost their fifth in six games and 20th in 28 overall. Ritz survived two stolen bases, an error, a wild pitch and three singles in Pittsburgh's two-run first inning. Colorado's three homers in the third -- by Fouts, Pelayo and Trujillo -- matched a club record set seven times previously, including five times this season. But only rarely have they clustered so many homers outside of Coors Field, where they've hit 134 of their 200 homers this season. All three shots came off Eugene Devlin (0-2), who made a league-high 31 starts in 2010 but is 0-2 with a 10.31 earned-run average in five starts this season.
