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Diamondbacks-Rockies Preview

Jul 20, 2009 - 2:56 AM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

Arizona (39-52) at Colorado (49-42), 8:40 p.m. EDT

Since June 4, the Colorado Rockies have lost only 10 times in 40 games.

Two of those defeats came at home to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

As the teams open a three-game series Monday night at Coors Field, the Rockies will try to take advantage of a cooling Diamondbacks team that just traded its top hitter.

Colorado (50-42) continued its recent strong play over the weekend, winning three of four in San Diego to remain one-half game behind San Francisco for the NL wild card lead.

In Sunday's 6-1 win over the Padres, Ian Stewart hit his team-leading 17th homer and Brad Hawpe added his 15th for the Rockies, who have hit 52 of their 108 home runs - second most in the NL - over their last 40 games.

"It's big for us to come here and win three of four," Stewart said. "We're still right in there, and it's huge to come out strong like this."

Colorado has dropped 24 of its last 36 home matchups with Arizona - including two of three July 3-5 - but Monday's scheduled starter, left-hander Jorge De La Rosa (6-7, 5.21 ERA), has won both of his previous starts versus the Diamondbacks in Denver while allowing just one run and seven hits over 14 innings.

On July 3, he yielded four hits in eight innings of a 5-0 win over Arizona, a performance that caused Diamondbacks infielder Mark Reynolds to launch an on-camera rant directed at his teammates.

"We looked like the Bad News Bears out there," Reynolds said. "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."

Reynolds' tirade and his subsequent heroics at the plate seemed to spark Arizona to seven wins in its final nine contests before the All-Star break, including a season-high five-game win streak.

The Diamondbacks (39-53), however, opened the second half by dropping two of three in St. Louis. After Sunday's 2-1 loss, they dealt second baseman Felipe Lopez, who was hitting a team-best .301, to Milwaukee for a pair of minor leaguers.

"With our place in the standings, we have to consider trades like this," said general manager Josh Byrnes, whose club has been outscored 18-7 in its last four games even with Lopez in the lineup. "Felipe will be a free agent at the end of the year, and we acquired a couple of guys with long-term value."

The Diamondbacks' .247 team batting average this season is second-worst in the NL behind San Diego's .232, and they've averaged only 2.2 runs in left-hander Doug Davis' last seven outings.

Davis (4-9, 3.41), who is 1-3 despite a 3.51 ERA in that span, will try to avoid tying for the NL lead in losses by improving on his 2-4 record and 3.72 ERA in eight career starts versus Colorado.

He allowed four runs over five innings in a 9-2 home loss to the Rockies on April 8.

Colorado first baseman Todd Helton, who is 5 for 9 in his career against Davis, needs one more double to become the 50th player all-time to reach 500 in his career.