Colorado Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario is sitting out Monday night's game against the San Francisco Giants, benched in favor of veteran Ramon Hernandez.
Colorado manager Jim Tracy made the move after Rosario recorded five passed balls in two losses against the Philadelphia Phillies over the weekend, including four in Sunday's game. Via Thomas Harding of MLB.com:
"The message has to be very clear, and that is you can't catch like that," Tracy said. "It put us in a bad spot in two games that we had chances to win.
"We've got to be better than this. It won't work moving forward. It's got to get a helluva lot better. It's not fair to the club. It's not fair to the pitching staff. It's not fair for pitchers who want to bury a breaking ball with two strikes. I've seen a couple of them get left up in the zone, and there's part of me that's wondering why."
…Rosario accepted the criticism.
"Right now, I'm trying to find a way to catch it better," Rosario said. "That was one of the toughest games I've ever had in the Major Leagues. We're working. That game showed that you need to work every day because sometimes you find something new."
Rosario, who leads all National League catchers with 23 runs, has 19 passed balls on the season, the worst mark in the majors. He said that he had difficulty seeing on Sunday due to late-afternoon shadows.
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