Padres RHP Anthony Bass beats Rockies in MLB debut
DENVER -- Anthony Bass hardly had time to celebrate his first major league win before being summoned into the manager's office and told he was being sent back down to the minors.
He understood. And at least he has a pleasant memory to take along with him.
Bass pitched five efficient innings and held a hot-hitting Colorado lineup in check to help the San Diego Padres snap a three-game skid with a 3-1 victory over the Rockies on Monday night in a game delayed 83 minutes by a thunderstorm.
The demotion had nothing to do with Bass' performance. But with the Padres' rotation nicked up, manager Bud Black needed the spot to call up another pitcher with Dustin Moseley still bothered by a slightly dislocated left shoulder and Aaron Harang going on the disabled list due to a bruised right foot.
Left-hander Wade LeBlanc is expected to join the team Tuesday from Triple-A Tucson to start against the Rockies.
With his family cheering him in the stands, Bass (1-0) allowed five hits, walked four and struck out one before the storm hit and halted his night.
With that, the anxiety over making his first start was finally relieved.
"I hardly got any sleep the past couple of days," Bass said.
Ryan Ludwick thought Bass showed plenty of poise in his debut, especially facing a lineup with plenty of pop.
"I'm very happy for the kid," Ludwick said. "He had some life to his fastball."
Aaron Cook (0-1) didn't return to the mound after the long delay, either. Cook, who was making his second start of the season, gave up five hits and two runs in 5 2/3 innings.
Ludwick brought in two runs without a hit, scoring Chris Denorfia on a sacrifice fly in the first and Jason Bartlett with a grounder to shortstop in the sixth that gave the Padres a 2-1 lead.
Shortly after, flashes of lightning lit up the sky above Coors Field and heavy rain began falling.
Following a walk to Anthony Rizzo, plate umpire Brian Gorman sent both teams into their dugouts to wait out the weather.
The Padres' bullpen took command when play resumed as Cory Luebke and Mike Adams combined to throw three scoreless innings.
Alberto Gonzalez provided an insurance run in the ninth with an RBI infield single after a triple by Cameron Maybin, who was back in the lineup after being out since May 28 with an inflamed right knee.
Heath Bell walked pinch-hitter Jason Giambi with two outs in the ninth, but struck out Carlos Gonzalez with a breaking ball in the dirt to earn his 18th save in 19 chances.
The low-scoring game was quite a contrast to the four-game weekend series between the Dodgers and Rockies, when the two teams combined for 63 runs.
San Diego opened the game with three straight singles and scored a run on Ludwick's deep fly to right. Cook avoided further damage by getting Rizzo to bounce into a 3-6-3 double play.
Cook has been extremely effective against the Padres during his career, going 14-4 with a 2.92 ERA heading into Monday's game. No active pitcher has more wins against the Padres.
The sinkerball specialist began the season on the disabled list after breaking the tip of his right finger in a spring-loaded door in mid-March. He was solid in his first start last Wednesday in San Diego, limiting the Padres to three runs in 5 2/3 innings.
The 23-year-old Bass hardly pitched like it was his first major league outing. He bottled up the Rockies the same way he did their minor league affiliate, Double-A Tulsa, in two outings earlier this season, when he gave up just three runs in 11 2/3 innings.
Bass relied on a well-placed fastball and a trustworthy slider to work his way out of several sticky situations against a Rockies lineup that had just scored 30 runs in four games against the Dodgers.
He began a little shaky as he gave up a double to Chris Nelson and walked Todd Helton with one out in the first. But he got Troy Tulowitzki to fly out and fanned Seth Smith to quell the threat.
In the fourth, Bass ran into trouble after Ty Wigginton walked and stole second. Charlie Blackmon followed with an RBI single that dropped in front of Maybin. Cook later grounded out to limit the damage.
Bass' best work was escaping a predicament in the fifth when the Rockies had one out and runners on second and third. Bass knocked down a grounder by Tulowitzki and threw out Carlos Gonzalez trying to score from third.
Two batters later, second baseman Alberto Gonzalez gobbled up Wigginton's grounder in shallow right and threw him out to end the inning.
"He had a good arm, but we should have done a lot better," Helton said of Bass. "If we would have swung the bats better we would have won the game."
A fifth-round pick by the Padres in 2008, Bass has been having a solid season in the minors, going 7-3 with a 3.41 ERA in 12 starts for Triple-A Tucson and Double-A San Antonio.
He's going to take the advice Black gave him in the office and apply it to his next start in the minors.
"It's a good thing to go hear positive feedback," Bass said. "Things I can work on, too. That's what's going to get me back here."
Game notes
Black said Harang will wear a walking boot to help his foot heal. ... Moseley is scheduled to start Sunday in Minnesota.
Series de Temporada Regular
Posiciones Oeste 2024
EQUIPO | O | P | % | GB | RACHA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Los Angeles | 14 | 11 | .560 | 0 | G2 |
San Diego | 13 | 13 | .500 | 1.5 | P1 |
San Francisco | 12 | 13 | .480 | 2 | G2 |
Arizona | 12 | 14 | .462 | 2.5 | P1 |
Colorado | 6 | 18 | .250 | 7.5 | G1 |
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