Jorge De La Rosa looks ready to start the regular season after Wednesday night's 6-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners. De La Rosa went six innings and struck out eight. He hit rough spots in the third and fifth innings when he allowed three runs over those frames. In the third, he surrendered a leadoff home run to Ryan Langerhans, but limited the Mariners the rest of the inning to a hit and a stolen base. In the fifth, De La Rosa gave up back-to-back doubles to give up one run and then a sacrifice fly for the third.
Despite giving up the runs, De La Rosa, who didn't walk a batter, left the game after six innings with a 6-3 lead for the Rockies. The Rockies struck in the third inning for five runs. Ian Stewart started the inning with a double and moved over to third on a Chris Iannetta single. Willy Taveras hit a soft single to second base, which held Stewart at third base. Ryan Spilborghs came through on the next at-bat with a two-run single. Carlos Gonzalez followed with a two-run double (and added another one on a single in the fifth). Gonzalez moved to third on a steal (though if you were watching the game on TV the camera didn't show it) and scored on a Troy Tulowitzki ground out.
Matt Daley relieved De La Rosa in the seventh and struck out two before giving way to Rafael Betancourt in the eighth. Betancourt, though, almost lost the lead for the Rockies when he gave up a double and single to start the inning, eventually allowing a run on a sac fly. He then saw another runner cross home plate on a single. However, Felipe Paulino took care of business in the ninth with a line out to shortstop, a strike out and a ground out to pick up the save.
The Rockies visit the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday, which will feature Jhoulys Chacin against Hiroki Kuroda.