Bettis takes away lessons from each outing

DENVER -- Chad Bettis is still learning how to be a big league pitcher.

Five weeks after he was called up from Double-A Tulsa and six starts into his Major League career, Bettis, 24, said he's emerging from each start with valuable lessons. And a big part of making that critical jump is figuring out how to be a pitcher rather than a thrower.

It's not an easy or seamless process -- Bettis is well aware, having twice allowed four earned runs or more.

"I think at the Double-A level, I was starting to learn how to pitch," Bettis said Sunday. "And then now up here, it's tenfold [what] it was down there, just because you're expected to win games here, so that's what we're trying to do. You have to learn how to pitch at this level, get that experience you need to get to start winning games."

"A guy that's worried about results, materialistic results, not the wins and losses, not trying to keep his team in the game," Bettis said about the difference between a pitcher and a thrower. "I think a pitcher has command of his pitches, command of the strike zone and figures out patterns and what he wants to do differently to each hitter."

Bettis starts Monday against Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers.