Kendrick bounces back, but Rockies do not
ANAHEIM -- The Rockies' losing streak reached 10 games Tuesday night at Angel Stadium, 5-2, but don't blame Kyle Kendrick for the latest installment.
Kendrick, coming off a pair of starts in which he surrendered 14 earned runs in 9 1/3 innings to the D-backs and Padres, turned things around against the Angels. He went seven innings, allowed five hits, and left with a 2-2 tie. The last of the 21 outs he recorded, getting Mike Trout to fly out to center with the potential go-ahead run at second, was likely Kendrick's biggest of the night.
"That was Kyle Kendrick," manager Walt Weiss said. "Kyle did a hell of a job. In that seventh, he got a huge out on Trout.
"He really commanded the ball well, changed speeds, and worked both sides of the plate."
Video: COL@LAA: Kendrick robs Perez with an athletic play
Kendrick didn't walk a batter for the third time this season. Rockies pitching had walked 23 in the past four games. No other Rockies starting pitcher has posted an outing without a walk.
This one came after the Rockies combined to walk 10 in Sunday's 9-5 home loss to the Dodgers.
"It's always good to keep your team in the game," Kendrick said. "Every game, I want to go out and go as deep as I can. I got in a groove early, and I kind of stuck with it."
Kendrick said he made no major adjustments from his last outing, other than "being down [in the zone]. When I've been getting hit, everything was up."
The Rockies' tale of woe is even longer than it seems. Thanks to three postponements, it's been more than a miserable two weeks since they last won at Arizona, 5-4, on April 27. They've lost 16 of 20, after starting the season 7-2.
"Obviously, the main thing is to win," Kendrick said." I hope we go out and get a win tomorrow."
Kendrick's pitching through seven innings marked the fourth time a Colorado pitcher has done so this season in 29 games. He has three of those efforts.
"His fastball command on both sides of the plate was outstanding," said catcher Nick Hundley, who extended his career-best hitting streak to 13 games with a third-inning single off C.J. Wilson, and scored the Rockies' initial run on a Troy Tulowitzki sacrifice fly.
Video: COL@LAA: Hundley crosses home on Tulo's sac fly
"His misses were competitive misses," Hundley continued, "not down the middle of the plate."
This one was decided quickly after Kendrick departed. The Angels roughed up reliever Rafael Betancourt for three runs in the eighth inning, the last two coming on a Matt Joyce double after Johnny Giavotella had broken the tie with an RBI single. Giavotella's hit scored Albert Pujols, who surprisingly stole second base, getting a great jump while Betancourt was still holding the ball.
"He didn't have his typical great command," Weiss said of Betancourt (0-1), who declined interviews after pitching for the first time since May 6. "He threw some pitches in the middle of the plate. Very uncharacteristic."
On Pujols' theft, Weiss said: "Albert is not typically a basestealer."
Characteristic or not, everyone seems to rise up and bite the Rockies these days.