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De La Rosa leads Rockies to 5-0 win over Arizona

Jul 4, 2009 - 4:22 AM By PAT GRAHAM AP Sports Writer

DENVER(AP) -- Jorge De La Rosa begged for the ball in the ninth inning, wanting desperately to get a chance at his first career complete game.

That idea was quickly rejected by Colorado Rockies manager Jim Tracy. Not because of a high pitch count or ineffectiveness, Tracy simply wanted to get his relievers some work.

De La Rosa became the third straight starter to pitch deep into a game, scattering four hits over eight innings as Colorado beat the slumping Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 on Friday night.

He had the stuff to take the mound for one more inning, but Tracy elected to give Joel Peralta two outs, and then let closer Huston Street finish off the game in a non-save situation.

"The bullpen has been virtually unused in the last four or five days," Tracy explained.

That's because Jason Hammel followed Jason Marquis' complete game with one of his own. Couple that with a day off and you have a well-rested bullpen.

Too rested for Tracy's taste.

De La Rosa (5-7) understood the logic behind the decision.

"They've got to pitch, too," he said.

The hard-throwing lefty won for the fifth time in six starts. Known more as a strikeout pitcher, he got 14 groundball outs as he had control of all four of his pitches.

"Once he establishes that fastball in the strike zone, it opens the door for his slider, curveball and changeup," Tracy said. "There was a point and time in the game tonight when had four pitches he was throwing for strikes. If you're an offensive player and you have to deal with four pitches for strikes, that's a monumental task."

The Diamondbacks had three more errors, running their season total to a major league-leading 74.

The sloppy play - not to mention Arizona losing for the eighth time in nine games - drew the ire of Mark Reynolds.

"This is the major leagues, you can't go out there and make three errors and expect to win a game. We looked like the Bad News Bears out there," Reynolds fumed. "It's frustrating as (expletive) out there. It's to the point where stuff's got to change. You can give all the rah-rah speeches you want and have all the team meetings you want, yell at guys or whatever, but guys got to give a damn.

"I don't really see it," he continued. "I know I care, I'm out there busting my tail every night. Physical errors are fine, but guys not doing the right thing, guys not being where they're supposed to be or guys giving up on (at-bats) is unacceptable at any level."

Gerardo Parra kicked off the shoddy play in the field by overthrowing second base in the fifth when Dexter Fowler stretched a single into a double. When the ball skipped into foul territory along the first-base side, Fowler got up and scampered home, sliding under the throw at the plate.

Later, Chris Young took his eyes off Ian Stewart's routine flyball in the sixth, the ball grazing his glove before landing in center field.

That was soon followed by Luke Carlin throwing to second on Stewart's steal attempt, only to find no one covering the bag. The ball bounced into center as Stewart took third. Carlin was originally credited with the error, but the official scorer later gave it to shortstop Augie Ojeda.

In spite of the miscues, Arizona manager A.J. Hinch tried to keep an even temper after the game.

"It's not this losing streak stretch, this week, this road trip, it's been a significant amount of time. So to pinpoint one thing or one deficiency is inaccurate," Hinch said. "We're a long way away from resembling the team we should. The only group that's going to be able to get us out of it is wearing our uniform."

NOTES: Stewart hit his 15th homer of the season, a solo shot in the second. ... Colorado SS Troy Tulowitzki rolled his ankle on a sixth-inning double, but Tracy said he's fine. The hit snapped an 0-for-16 skid. ... Diamondbacks RHP Max Scherzer (5-6) allowed six hits over six innings.